“What are you looking at?”
Lu Qingyan heard the question and turned around, smiling at her indulgently, “Nothing much, let’s go.”
The two left without looking back.
Zhou Yanxu emerged slowly from behind the concealing doorway.
He gazed at the spacious steps for a long time.
The young monk ran over: “Guiyuan, the female donor left without saying a word. I just went to look for her to ask if she would eat lunch.”
“Jingyou, take good care of the temple.”
The young monk had a bad premonition: “Guiyuan, where are you going?”
Zhou Yanxu raised his hand and touched his smooth head, smiling gently at him: “I’m going wandering. I’ll be back later; take good care of the abbot.”
“Ah? You’ve been gone for two years and you’re only staying one night upon your return. When will I see you again?” The young monk puffed up, somewhat annoyed.
“When fate decides, I’ll be back,” he said, leaving just that behind.
Zhou Yanxu then left.
The young monk huffed: “It’s always that phrase.”
…
Lu Qingyan’s car was parked below.
In the meantime, seeing Jiang Nanshu feeling dizzy, he squatted down to let Jiang Nanshu lean on his back, carrying her down.
Jiang Nanshu was responsible for holding the umbrella, so they both wouldn’t get drenched.
Perhaps the mood was a bit quiet, Lu Qingyan started looking for a topic.
“Was the temple fun?”
“It wasn’t fun—all monks, what fun could there be? I’ll never come here again,” Jiang Nanshu’s voice was somewhat hoarse, faint.
“Are you sure you won’t come again?” Lu Qingyan asked again.
Jiang Nanshu found it odd: “Do you hope I’ll come? Looking forward to me becoming a nun?”
Lu Qingyan: “…”
Actually… just now… he thought he saw Zhou Yanxu…
Standing at the gate.
The dead man was standing right before him, alive; he nearly lost control of his facial expression.
This was nothing short of a medical miracle.
“Well, if not coming is what you want…”
“Oh.”
He put her in the car the entire way.
The road was fairly smooth.
Jiang Nanshu leaned on the car seat and closed her eyes to sleep.
For the first time, Lu Qingyan experienced what it felt like.
To not be cared about by someone.
He must also be somewhat seriously ill.
The Jiang Nanshu of the past used to cling to him, and he found it annoying.
Now, Jiang Nanshu maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far, and he found her lack of clinginess irritating.
So there was the reason why she ignored so many of his messages.
Because she had found someone she liked.
Lu Qingyan wanted to laugh, but his heart also ached.
He should’ve just left her at the temple gate, but he had to worry about her getting sick and took her to the hospital first.
Her absentmindedness, her sorrow, none of it belonged to him.
He really wanted to ask Jiang Nanshu.
What was he in her heart?
A backup or just a stepping stone for completing her tasks.
But he couldn’t ask.
He was afraid that the peace they maintained would crumble to pieces.
Just wait a bit longer, accompany her a bit more.
He could surely make her like him too.
…
Lu Qingyan took Jiang Nanshu to the nearest hospital.
Her temperature was 39.5 degrees Celsius.
She was delirious with fever, completely cared for by Lu Qingyan the entire time.
When she woke up on the hospital bed, it was already dark outside.
There was a new IV mark on the back of her hand.
Lu Qingyan had his back to her, standing by the window on the phone.
“The partners can wait for me to soothe them when I get back. I’m currently in Port City and can’t leave. They can’t wait? Then let them not wait.”
The phone call ended, and the next second it rang again.
He hadn’t even caught his breath.
He answered again.
“Grandpa, I really can’t come back. I’ve already explained it to our partners. Nannan is sick here in Port City, how can I leave?”
After he spoke, it was unknown what Old Sir Lu said on the other end.
He fell silent for a long while.
Then he spoke again, “There’s no delay in feeling sorry for her now. Don’t worry about me so much. Things are good between us, and I plan to stay here for a week. I’ll leave when she leaves, no one else’s words will change my mind.”
“Business? That’s not as important as a wife, who’s about to leave!”
Jiang Nanshu: “?”
Wasn’t she fine right here? Where could she run off to?
Pshaw! They didn’t even have anything official between them; she certainly wasn’t his wife.
So she feigned a light cough to interrupt his conversation.
Lu Qingyan quickly turned his head to glance over, unconsciously lowering his voice, “Let’s stop here… she’s awake.”
He walked over calmly and, seeing Jiang Nanshu looking better, asked, “Do you still feel uncomfortable anywhere? You were up in the mountains overnight without anyone offering you fever medicine? I’m definitely reporting that temple.”
Jiang Nanshu: “…”
“No need, I didn’t ask the monks there for medicine.”
Seeing Jiang Nanshu’s lips were dry, Lu Qingyan went to the storage cabinet to pour some hot water.
“Hah, it’s clear they didn’t care about you. Any normal person seeing you caught in the rain would at least make a bowl of ginger soup to warm you up,” Lu Qingyan couldn’t help but let out a derisive laugh, objectively stating the facts.
Jiang Nanshu sat up in bed, staring at the back of Lu Qingyan’s head, “I have no close ties with the monks at that temple, and I stayed there for the night. How could I have the face to trouble others to make ginger soup?”
“What about the next day? When your face was burning up like that, did anyone care?”
Jiang Nanshu: “…”
Was he eating gunpowder? Why did he have to cling to the topic of her being sick?
She coughed twice, slowly responding, “Yes, they even gave me fever medicine and a thermometer. I just didn’t measure it.” Seeing Lu Qingyan holding the warm water with an expressionless face, she smiled at him, deliberately contradicting him, “They were really nice to me. It’s just my body that’s weak; even after taking the medicine, the fever didn’t go down.”
Lu Qingyan: “…”
[Why are you being so sarcastically mysterious here? Who offended you?]
“If he was really that nice, he would have taken you to the hospital. Can his temple cure illnesses?” Lu Qingyan told himself to restrain a bit, not to show his hostility too obviously.
After all, right now Jiang Nanshu didn’t know that he was aware of her relationship with Zhou Yanxu.
“Come on, drink some water.” He stiffly changed the topic, “Let’s go back soon.”
Jiang Nanshu had no objections.
After drinking the water, she saw that her phone was fully charged.
Upon turning it on, a flood of messages poured in.
There were several calls from Zhou Zhenghui.
Unable to reach her, he had sent messages.
He told her Jiang Leyi had woken up, that it was just some excessive blood loss and nothing serious.
Jiang Nanshu opened up the chat with Lu Qingyan, covering her mouth in surprise, “Brother Qingyan, how did you send me so many messages without me knowing?”
Lu Qingyan saw that her contact name for him was “Lover.”
He didn’t expose her exaggerated acting and instead smiled at her, “Yeah, a lot. This time your phone’s battery was drained because of the calls I made to you. It’s my fault, it has nothing to do with you.”
Jiang Nanshu: “…”
She felt he was mocking her.
Originally, she wanted to show him the contact name to score some points with him, but now she withdrew it with chagrin, “Next time I’ll bring a power bank with me, haha…”
The moment turned awkward.
So, Jiang Nanshu refreshed her news feed.
The first headline was [Actor Yuan Feng Tragically Passes Away].