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Chapter 22: Taking Care of Chu Yuan Jiang

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“You will know once you come here.” Then the call was cut off.

I put down the phone and stared at the bright screen. Ha, someone else just told me to take care of Chu for some more days. Now they asked me to go back.

No matter what kind of struggles were going on in their family, I couldn’t leave Chu Yuan Jiang like this.

I… I needed to make sure the first thing he saw was me when he woke up.

With all the pondering, I slowly walked back to the ward, grabbed a chair and sat next to Chu’s bed.

I was free to go anywhere in the hospital without anyone intercepting me now. The staff here treated me very different than when I first arrived.

I sighed. It was too impulsive of me to fight with Lin Ye when I left City B. I shouldn’t have spoken up against him like that because no matter what had happened, it had happened. So, I needed to calm down, accept it, and make plans. After all, Chu killed a man in prison. In the future, further interaction with Lin Ye was inevitable.

Until I arrived in City X, came to his side and saw him for real, I realized the cold sweat on my back had dried out. He was in a terrible situation, but it was not hopeless yet.

The sun filled the room with pale, thin sunlight, which made his ashen face appear more lifeless.

Chu Yuan Jiang’s hair was all shaved. I looked at him carefully, stroking his head with caution. He laid there quietly, giving me no response. I took the whole arm of his and massaged his palm.

From what I could tell, the consequences of this whole incident was not beyond redemption, but the hope was not great. If the results weren’t the best, the current days would be the last time in our life that we could spend together. When I thought about this, my chest hurt so badly.

Even when the police ensnared him in the dragnet, I convinced myself could save him; even though I kneeled down in front of Lin Ye, my heart did not submit to him…

However, I no longer have the confidence right now…

If he is gone, should I keep the company? But what is the use of money?

If he is gone, no matter how successful I become, who would care? How would I prove myself?

If he is gone, then I am a fúcking coward, a man who can’t even save his brother. How can I live alone in this world with such a shame?

*** *** ***

I took care of some calls from the company and re-arranged some personnel. The rest of my time was spent in the ward watching the nurses giving him nutrition injections, changing bandages, treating his wounds. I helped by washing his face and cleaning his body.

When he opened his eyes that day, the first thing he saw was me.

I was washing the towel in the basin at that time. I wrung the towel and was about to continue to clean Chu’s legs. When I turned around, he was leaning on the pillow with head tilted, staring at me bluntly with his dark eyes.

I was excited, “Yuan Jiang, are you awake?”

His eyelashes moved a little, and I immediately got it. I poured a cup of water and carefully held it against his lips. He seemed not able to swallow, so he only licked the drips at the brim.

“……” He tried to open his mouth but failed to make any sound.

I hurriedly wiped his lips, “No need to talk, just rest. I am here.”

The dark eyes staring at me lost the usual intensity and color. Chu’s pupils were wide, which made him look tranced.

I sat on the bedside holding his whole hand, “It’s all right. Everything will be okay. We can pledge  for medical parole.”

His fingers moved slightly, and I grabbed his hand tight.

The doctor gave him a complete examination, then pills, injections, liquid food.

The second day, after napping for a while, he was finally able to talk, “Junzi.”

“Yeah, I am here.” I walked next to the bed and gently tucked him up, “Awake? Did you sleep well?”

His voice was extremely hoarse, “I want noodles…”

“I am boiling the water. Just wait a minute.” I had brought a small induction cooker the day before yesterday. It plugged in the ward and steam was coming out from it.

He nodded. When the water boiled, I cracked an egg into the boiling water and stirred it with the noodles. Then I added in napa cabbages and shrimp shells. Before serving, I poured several drops of sesame oil on it. “Let it cool down a little bit. We can have it later.”

“I want to have it right now.”

“Okay.” I sat next to him and lifted his head. After piling up the pillows, I let him lean on them. I held the bowl, scooped up some noodles, and blew on it to cool it down. “Be careful. Don’t burn your tongue.”

He nodded. Slowly, we finished the bowl of noodles.

When he finished, he let out a sigh of satisfaction. I put aside the bowl and chopsticks, sat back and wiped his mouth with the towel.

I recalled once he had a high fever a long time ago. He was in a coma, but we didn’t have the money to go to a big hospital. I took him to a small clinic and gave him an injection, but it didn’t work. I had to resort to the most outdated method. I boiled ginger roots in water and fed him the ginger water little by little. Then I combed his skin with a comb to help him sweat. After sweating heavily, his fever was relieved. When he woke up, the first thing he asked for was food as well.

“Are you full?” I smiled.

“Junzi…” He looked at me, and curved his lips, “Your noodles are as disastrous as usual.”

I scolded him happily, “Be thankful that you can get fed. Stop talking nonsense.”

*** *** ***

After a while, the nurse came to change the catheter bag. Chu Yuan Jiang asked, “I want to use the restroom. Can you unplug the needles?”

She pointed at the spittoon under the bed, “The spittoon is here. You can do it here. No need to disconnect the needles.”

I was confused, “Can’t he use the toilet?”

“He is not able to walk right now. How can he get to the restroom?”

“What about me carrying him?”

“His arm is still in plaster. How are you gonna move him?”

Chu Yuan Jiang smiled, “It’s okay. He can carry me. He would be meticulous.”

“Then it’s not our responsibility if your arm breaks again.” The nurse unplugged the needles.

I uncovered him from the blanket and wrapped his whole arm around my neck. I put one arm behind his back, and the other around his knees, and lifted him up. The nurse helped hold his broken arm so that we could walk to the restroom.

I found a clean toilet, and put him carefully onto the seat, then fixed his arm.

“Call me when you finish.”

“Yeah.”

Closed the door, the nurse and I waited for him outside.

“It’s a lot of trouble for you to carry him around. Just let him do it in the room. You can’t spoil a patient like that.”

“He won’t tolerate it. He has a strong sense of pride.”

“Yeah, but that will just cause pain for himself.”

After a while, he called me, “Junzi.”

I pushed the door open and entered, lifted him up. His expression was weird. “Who treated my wound these days.”

“The chief nurse.” It was the chief nurse the first day, but me afterward. She said I needed to learn it because I needed to learn a lot to take care of him after he left the hospital.

“Oh.”

I carried him back to the ward.

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