Zhou Zhou shook his head to barely see the road ahead. Holding the child, he steadied himself. He had been feeling dizzy and lightheaded lately, but his work hadn't been that demanding.
As Zhou Zhou approached the car and pulled out his car keys, a wave of dizziness suddenly washed over him. His vision went completely white, and he lost his balance, falling headfirst into the car window.
[Author's Note]:
I'm so tired. There's been so much going on lately, and I feel like I'm not in the right frame of mind QAQ. The story will probably be finished by the end of the month. If you guys want any extra chapters, please let me know!
Chapter 120 The So-Called "Never Changing, Yet the Essence Remains the Same"
With a loud 'bang,' the forehead slammed into the car window with such force that it was no exaggeration to say it hit hard. Before the impact, Zhou Zhou instinctively reached out to protect the little head in his arms. The commotion caused the headlights of the cars parked nearby to blare.
First, he crashed headfirst into the car window, the glass shattered into a spiderweb pattern by the adult's skull. Having experienced something similar before, Zhou Zhou suddenly remembered that the world he had traveled back to was just like this. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on his back, his mind blank and he couldn't remember anything. Only the throbbing pain in his forehead awakened his will to live.
"dad!"
Zhou Zhou's vision blurred, and his consciousness gradually faded. In his hazy state, he saw Fu Xiaofan, whom he had been protecting, climb up from his arms and helplessly try to cover the bleeding wound on his forehead.
"Hold on a bit, I'll call 120!" The zipper of the bag was open, and the tablet was thrown out with a cracked corner. After tapping a few times, the screen remained black. Fu Xiaofan had no choice but to use one hand to rummage through Zhou Zhou's pocket.
Zhou Zhou couldn't understand why the impact was so severe. He didn't even have the strength, otherwise he would have called for an ambulance himself. The fainting spells he had experienced in the previous accidents were all rapid, but he was still conscious. He could feel warm blood flowing from the wound, and the liquid on his skin was gradually drying and sticking to the surface of his skin in the 30-degree Celsius temperature.
Besides that, Zhou Zhou seemed to feel his consciousness being gradually pulled out of his body, and then nothing more happened.
The hospital had a strong, pungent smell of disinfectant. When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a spotless, white ceiling, and even the layout of the surroundings felt so familiar.
It could be an object, or a person.
But as a regular customer, he was used to it.
"dad……"
A soft murmur reached Zhou Zhou's ears. He slowly turned his head and saw Fu Xiaofan, who was lying on the headboard, blinking his big eyes at him. There was no change in expression on Fu Xiaofan's face, but his voice was so pitiful.
This scene was truly bizarre to someone who had just woken up. Zhou Zhou grinned helplessly, "If there's no one around, you don't have to act. If you're going to act, then act convincingly..."
The words stopped abruptly as Zhou Zhou looked through the glass in the door at her husband's familiar figure.
Oh, my dear son, you really know how to save trouble.
The door was ajar, greatly reducing the soundproofing. As long as the person outside couldn't see his expression, Fu Xiaofan's method of only making sounds was still effective; at least it conveyed his concern for his father.
"I've been unconscious for several days." Zhou Zhou felt tired and hungry. He dragged his still weak body to sit up and looked up to see Fu Xiaofan looking at him with an ambiguous expression at the head of the bed.
"Hmm..." Zhou Zhou pondered and reached out to touch the other's face, saying seriously, "I just took a nap, but Xiao Fan seems to have grown a year older."
Fu Xiaofan let the other person touch his face like that, his expression complicated, and said, "Two hours, forty-five minutes and forty-eight seconds."
After saying that, he added, "The time you were unconscious."
It didn't take as long as last time, which meant there wasn't a big problem, and Zhou Zhou was obviously relieved.
But the child's face was still wrinkled like the texture of a meat bun, as if he had something on his mind. Just as Zhou Zhou was about to tease him, the door was pushed open from the outside without warning.
Fu Hengzhi saw the person on the bed looking at him with a smile, paused, then strode towards the other person and hugged them tightly.
The embrace was so tight that Zhou Zhou could hardly breathe. She reached out and patted the other's firm back. "I can't breathe. I'm fine. Can you loosen your grip a bit?"
The arms that were holding her tightly did loosen their grip, but the other person still held her tightly in their arms, as if they had suddenly obtained a treasure and were unwilling to let go.
Zhou Zhou was helpless. He knew that his bump and dizziness had probably frightened the other person, so he quickly reassured him, "It's okay, I feel fine now."
Fu Hengzhi's eyes were red-rimmed, and the whites of his eyes were covered with blood vessels, making him look haggard and frightening.
He cupped the other person's cheek in his hands, but just stared without saying a word, quietly observing.
The other person's complexion was not good; it could even be described as deathly pale. Fu Hengzhi took a deep breath and gently stroked the edge of the gauze bandage on the other person's forehead with his fingers.
In Zhou Zhou's eyes, the other party was clearly still in fear and anxiety.
“You…” Fu Hengzhi began, but his voice was hoarse. Zhou Zhou knew what had caused this; Fu Xiaofan had also spoken in the same way after crying for a long time.
"...How are you feeling? Is anything bothering you? Are you hungry?"
Fu Hengzhi coughed a few times, trying to make his voice sound as normal as before.
"I'm a little hungry." Zhou Zhou raised his hand to touch the bandage wrapped around his head and said, "I feel fine otherwise, nothing uncomfortable."
“It will take a while to get food delivered from the private chef restaurant,” Fu Hengzhi said, sitting on the caregiver’s chair by the bed. “Would you like to try the hospital’s meals? They’re pretty good.”
"Sure, you can arrange it as you see fit."
"Okay." Fu Hengzhi continued to stare at the other person's face.
After he finished speaking and didn't move for a while, Zhou Zhou pulled his hand out of the other's hand, gently pushed his shoulder, and joked, "Did you order the food with your brainwaves? Move a little and go, I'm hungry, and our son must be hungry too."
He glanced at Fu Xiaofan, who pursed his lips and shook his head and then nodded, "Xiaofan is fine. Daddy, go order some food. I'll stay here with Dad."
"Um."
Fu Hengzhi responded, his gaze still fixed on Zhou Zhou. After a moment, he took out a card from his pocket and handed it to Fu Xiaofan, who was standing next to him.
"At the end of the corridor, take the elevator down one floor, turn right and enter the hospital restaurant. Then take the elevator on the left to the third floor. It's not a communal dining area, so you can buy whatever you want there, but remember not to order cilantro, scallions, ginger, garlic, or spicy food."
Fu Hengzhi finished reciting without turning his head, leaving Fu Xiaofan staring blankly at the meal card in his hand. He sat at the foot of the bed, and after a moment, he actually seemed to want to jump off the bed to buy food.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Zhou Zhou quickly stopped him, took the card from Fu Xiaofan's hand and stuffed it into Fu Heng's shirt pocket, laughing and scolding, "What are you doing, letting your son go buy it? You go."
"...He can..."
"You go." Zhou Zhou interrupted him, feigning anger. She nudged Fu Xiaofan with her foot under the covers and gestured with her chin, "You go too, keep your daddy company."
“…I’ll stay here with you.” Fu Hengzhi didn’t touch the card, and continued to hug him. “His…son is fine.”
Fu Xiaofan's gaze shifted between the two men. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said, "Dad, I can go."
“Let your daddy go with you.” Zhou Zhou smiled wryly and patted Fu Hengzhi on the back to let go of him. “I feel fine, don’t worry, I can’t run away again.”
“I know…” Fu Hengzhi gently cupped the other’s right hand in his hands, his movements light and delicate, making the other’s hand seem precious. He then gently kissed the back of the other’s hand.
"Wait for me for twenty... fifteen minutes, I'll be right back."
"Okay, I'll wait for you."
Zhou Zhou watched the other person leave the ward with a smile, her gentleness as if she weren't the one who had given the other person the cold shoulder and refused to let them into bed the previous times.
After waking up, the two men acted very awkwardly, and he himself was no different.
In just ten minutes, the glow of the sunset outside the window vanished, and the sun began to set.
The LED lights inside the room were not yet turned on, and the last rays of the sunset shone through the glass window and through the fine dust particles in the air onto the clean, white bedding.
Fu Xiaofan sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, gazing at the other person's profile, which was flushed red by the sunset glow. He didn't know if he should say it again. He thought the other person knew, after all, he had made it clear countless times when he appeared.
But his time together had shown him that the other person was completely unaware of this.
"system."
"I'm here," Fu Xiaofan replied crisply, but still didn't get a glance from the other person.
After sending Fu Hengzhi away, Zhou Zhou's state was completely different from before. Her eyes were dull and she stared calmly at the moon before sunset outside the window.
Her hands, hanging by her sides, gripped the bed sheet tightly, as if she were about to tear it apart.
"So that's what it means when everything changes but the essence remains the same..."
He didn't dare to confirm the guess in his heart, but he felt inexplicably that it was the answer.
[Author's Note]:
Um......
Chapter 121 Not about weight loss, but slightly angsty details
Chapter 121 Not About Losing Weight (Minor Bites of Anguish)
After asking, no one spoke. The ward was too quiet. Fu Xiaofan, who was part of the system, twisted the hem of her clothes with her two index fingers and bit her lower lip tightly.
I thought you always knew.
He was about to speak.
"Never mind, don't answer me." Zhou Zhou murmured, like a puppet doll that had lost its tether, she leaned back on the soft pillow, staring blankly at the ceiling, a bleak smile on her lips.
The other person's face looked worse than if they were crying, and Fu Xiaofan didn't know how to comfort them.
Because this was written long ago, the inherent ending for each character in the book.
He had already explained when he arrived that he assumed the other party had already accepted it readily.
At Zhou Zhou's insistence, he was discharged the next day. He hadn't brought much with him except for his adopted son. When he left, he pretended not to see the complicated look the doctor gave Fu Hengzhi, and he did not accept the doctor's suggestion to stay in the hospital for observation.
Fu Hengzhi, unusually, did not ask him to stay in the ward for a week. Instead, after getting out of bed, he held his hand tightly, their fingers intertwined, so tightly that the purplish-red marks lingered for a long time after they let go.
The other person panicked after witnessing it, like a child who knew they were about to be punished for doing something wrong. Holding his hand, which bore the marks, she lowered her head and repeated the three words over and over again.
"sorry……"
"Come on, what are you apologizing for?" After being discharged from the hospital, Zhou Zhou's smile was as bright as ever. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, she pulled her hand away from his and pushed his shoulder. "You should go to the company. It's already past nine o'clock."
"I'll bring all the computer files back... How about I work from home and keep you company?" Fu Hengzhi remained kneeling in front of the sofa, gently holding the other's left hand and reverently kissing the faint red marks at the base of his fingers.
"Sure, but shouldn't you get ready?" Zhou Zhou blinked, thought for a moment, and then said, "I also need to report my situation to Director Sun and apply to work from home, after all..."
As he spoke, he moved his fingers up to touch the bandage on his forehead and chuckled, "I'm a patient, after all."
"I'll just say hello to Liu Zong."
Fu Hengzhi got up and kissed the corner of his mouth, but couldn't help but deepen the kiss when he touched it. Zhou Zhou returned the kiss in rhythm with the other's kiss. They had a little unpleasantness last time, and he couldn't remember how long it had been since he had been so intimate with the other.
"Let's go back to our room tonight." After the kiss ended, Zhou Zhou thoughtfully straightened the other's tie, gently stroking the smooth fabric of the tie with his hand. Fu Hengzhi remained bent over, letting the other examine his tie, while he carefully observed the subtle expressions on the other's face.
Seeing the other person's brows gradually furrow, Fu Hengzhi immediately grabbed the other person's hand that was touching his tie and said softly, "I really like the gift you gave me, and the color matches well too."
"Hey, I knew it looked familiar." A rare embarrassed smile appeared on Zhou Zhou's face. He rubbed his nose and looked away awkwardly. "It's just a tie. I'll buy you a few more so you can change it every day."
"Okay, I'll wait." Fu Hengzhi's eyes were full of tenderness.
This wasn't the first time Fu Hengzhi had worked from home. He informed Yuedong and then stopped letting Zhou Zhou go to the set to supervise the production and editing teams.
Fu Hengzhi specially made a schedule that included all aspects of life. For example, he could turn off the alarm clock within a second after it rang at 6:30 in the morning, then get dressed, wash up, cook, and wake up his wife and son. After washing the dishes, the three of them would do their own things in the study, creating a warm and undisturbed atmosphere.
He never knew he could do so many things.
"You have to work and cook every day, it must be very tiring." Zhou Zhou chewed on the beef brisket in his mouth, the delicious taste making him nod incessantly. "Next time I'll cook, you can take a break."