Chapter 28 : Letting the Wolf In

The room fell into a terrifying silence for a moment. Fan Yanxing was startled by Liang Qingqing’s sudden line of thought and nearly dropped his cup on the floor. After a long pause, he rubbed his forehead and chuckled helplessly, “How could you think that? Don’t worry besides your cold, there’s nothing else wrong with you.”

“That’s good.” Liang Qingqing patted her chest, relieved that a heavy weight had finally lifted. Unable to resist, she gave him a playful look, “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden? I’m not used to it.”

“Have I been bad to you before?” Fan Yanxing frowned slightly, trying to recall their past interactions. Although their meetings had been tense at the beginning due to some misunderstandings, it hadn’t been too bad, had it?

Seeing Fan Yanxing lost in thought, Liang Qingqing intentionally made a gesture of disdain and said, “Just average. Don’t you have any self-awareness?”

It was meant to tease him but Fan Yanxing took it seriously. His expression suddenly turned serious, and he spoke earnestly with a raised tone, “It’s my fault, but I promise I’ll be better to you from now on.”

The scene resembled a vow or a promise, leaving Liang Qingqing perplexed. She scratched her head, increasingly feeling that Fan Yanxing was behaving strangely today. Could it be that knowing she saved him yesterday made him see her as a savior?

The man’s thoughts were as deep as the ocean impossible to understand!

But he wanted to be good to her and regardless of the reason, it was a step in the right direction. She didn’t need to probe further.

After coming to this conclusion, Liang Qingqing looked Fan Yanxing up and down. “I’m feeling much better after taking the medicine. How about you? How are you feeling?”

“I’m better, but I still feel weak all over.”

“Then why didn’t you rest a bit longer? Why are you up so early?” It was clear that Fan Yanxing should be the one being cared for, yet now the roles had reversed. Liang Qingqing felt a bit embarrassed being cared for by him, a patient himself.

“I was worried about your fever, so I stayed up to watch over you. Fortunately, your fever subsided shortly after taking the medicine.”

As she turned her head slightly, her eyes met his. The air seemed to freeze for a moment and when he looked back at her, his gaze was filled with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher causing her heart to skip a beat.

“You waited until my fever broke before leaving?”

“Mm.”

Fan Yanxing quickly averted his gaze, feeling uncomfortable from the ambiguous conversation. A flush crept up his ears again. He cleared his throat, pretending to be nonchalant as he looked out the window. “It’s getting late. We both need to eat and take our medicine. I’ll go wake up Brother Junqiang.”

As he spoke, Fan Yanxing glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but their gazes met perfectly. He swallowed nervously and without waiting for her to speak again, hurriedly looked away and turned to leave quickly.

Watching his hurried retreat from the hospital room, Liang Qingqing remained silent for two seconds before slowly curling one side of her lips. She sensed that after this incident, the relationship between them seemed to have started to become subtly different.

……

 Junqiang, who was sleeping soundly was jolted awake by Fan Yanxing’s call. Hearing that Liang Qingqing was sick, he quickly sprang up from his fold-out bed, rushing to check on her.

“She’s already recovered from the fever. It’s nothing serious.”

Fan Yanxing stopped him and explained the situation, calming Liang Junqiang down. He sighed and said, “She must have caught a cold from being out in the rain for too long. I’m going to the cafeteria to buy some food. Wait for me here.”

As he spoke, he put on his shoes.

“Brother Junqiang, do you have any money or tickets with you?”

“I don’t have much money left. Tickets are precious, and it’s not easy to borrow them in the countryside.”

Liang Junqiang was grateful just to borrow money. He hadn’t even hoped to get a ticket. Even if he could borrow one, he wouldn’t dare do so, fearing he couldn’t pay it back.

“I plan to go back to the village after breakfast to get some change of clothes and supplies.”

Liang Junqiang maintained a simple smile, not mentioning the financial difficulties his family faced.

“It’s still raining heavily outside. It’s dangerous to go back to the village. It’s also troublesome to keep going up and down. Besides, if it weren’t for me, you and Qingqing wouldn’t have had to stay in the city and spend this money.”

With that, Fan Yanxing took out a note he had written earlier and said, “Here’s the plan I have a friend in the military district not far from the county. It would be hard for you to run around in this weather. Just give this note to him and he will give you the money and tickets.”

Normally, it would take almost three hours to travel round-trip from the county to Daping Village. With the continuous rain making the mountain roads difficult, it was hard to say how long it would take. On the other hand, a round trip to the military district would take less than an hour, so it was clearly more convenient.

However…

“I couldn’t possibly…” Liang Junqiang was so focused on refusing Fan Yanxing’s offer that he didn’t even notice that Fan Yanxing was addressing Liang Qingqing in a rather familiar way, using her nickname!

“Brother Junqiang, you often told me not to be polite with you before, so don’t be polite with me now,” Fan Yanxing said, pressing the note into Liang Junqiang’s hand without giving him a chance to refuse.

Hearing this, Liang Junqiang was momentarily speechless. Considering Liang Qingqing’s illness, he decided not to waste any more time. He nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll go buy the food now and handle the rest after that.”

After they settled the matter, Liang Junqiang went next door to check on Liang Qingqing. Seeing that she was out of danger, he gave her a few instructions before leaving.

Around noon, when Liang Junqiang returned, he was accompanied by someone. The newcomer wore a crisp military-green uniform with a bright red star on the hat’s brim. His features were strong, his skin dark and his face showed an expression of urgency, which relaxed only when he saw that Fan Yanxing was safe and sound.

“ Brther Yan , what’s going on? You scared me to death!” The man who entered rushed straight to Fan Yanxing, dropping what he was carrying right at the doorway without a second thought.

“Let me introduce you,” Fan Yanxing said. “These are my fellow villagers from the countryside. This is my good brother Liang Junqiang and his sister Liang Qingqing. If it weren’t for them, things could have been much worse.”

“This is my childhood friend Chu Qi. He’s with the military district in Fuzhen County now.”

At this point, Chu Qi noticed the presence of another person in the ward. Following Fan Yanxing’s， his gaze was instantly captivated and refused to move away.

The girl was standing by the window, the light outside casting a soft glow on her, making her look almost ethereal. She wore the same hospital gown as Fan Yanxing, her long black hair cascading to her waist, highlighting her flawless, fair skin with a hint of pink. Her distinct oval face was adorned with large eyes, a high nose bridge, and delicate red lips every feature was simply beautiful.

She tilted her head slightly and gave a soft smile that could steal a person’s soul.

My goodness, does this world really have someone as perfect as his dream girl? How could Fan Yanxing not introduce him to such a beautiful girl?

“Chu Qi?”

Fan Yanxing, noticing Chu Qi’s unblinking stare at Liang Qingqing, felt his smile momentarily freeze. He patted Chu Qi’s shoulder to bring him back to reality.

“Thank you so much, Comrades Liang!”

Chu Qi raised his hand in a salute and sincerely thanked them.

“Don’t mention it. Fan Yanxing has helped us a lot before as well.”

Liang Qingqing noticed Chu Qi’s gaze and nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

After a bit of small talk, Chu Qi remembered the fruits he had brought and volunteered to wash them. He also didn’t forget to remind them, “I brought two sets of clothes for changing. You and Brother Liang can each have one. Our sizes aren’t too different, so they should fit. Oh, and the bras you asked me to buy are in the package too.”

No wonder Fan Yanxing had him buy women’s clothing there was a woman here.

“Great.” Fan Yanxing nodded. After Chu Qi left, he began taking out the items from the package malted milk powder, egg cakes, peaches, soap…

Each item was expensive in this era, leaving Liang Junqiang and Liang Qingqing awestruck.

“Eat up,” Fan Yanxing said, opening the bag and handing them the food. Liang Junqiang hesitated and shook his head, “I’m not hungry.”

He thought buying things from the supply store was just about picking up small items. He hadn’t expected Fan Yanxing to buy so many expensive items requiring money and tickets.

They say the benefits for soldiers are good now he truly felt it!

“Eat up. Even if you don’t eat it, it’ll just sit there.” Fan Yanxing didn’t give Liang Junqiang a chance to refuse, directly stuffing an egg cake into his hand. Seeing Liang Junqiang still shaking his head, he simply lifted his hand and put the cake in his mouth. Now, Liang Junqiang couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to.

Liang Qingqing wasn’t as “considerate” as Liang Junqiang. When Fan Yanxing handed her the bag, she promptly took out a piece of the egg cake. After having it once before, she still remembered its sweet and fragrant taste! Now that she had the chance to enjoy this treat again thanks to Fan Yanxing, she wasn’t going to hold back.

“This is so delicious,” Liang Qingqing’s eyes curved into crescent moons, and her dimples appeared faintly on her cheeks, making her look like an adorable kitten.

“If you like it so much, I’ll buy it for you next time.”

Before Fan Yanxing could finish his sentence, someone cut him off mid-speech. The voice arrived before the person did “You like this? We get half a pound of it every month in the military district. I don’t like sweets, so I’ll bring it to you next time.”

As soon as the words were finished, Chu Qi appeared at the door of the ward with a big, bright smile. His white teeth and dark skin gave him a particularly amusing appearance, which made Liang Qingqing cover her mouth and laugh. Seeing her laugh, Chu Qi grinned even wider.

Fan Yanxing’s face instantly darkened like charcoal. He set down the egg cake, grabbed the peaches Chu Qi had washed, and began to urge him to leave “The food’s delivered and you have a lot of work in the military district. I won’t keep you here, you should leave quickly.”

“You had an accident, so I took a day off to come see you. I’ll stay in the hospital to take care of you and leave tomorrow morning.” Chu Qi was no match for Fan Yanxing’s persuasion and simply went over to Liang Qingqing with the peaches.

“Try these… this one is sweeter.”