Why has it been delayed until now?
Why did it take so long? Was it because I arrived too late?
Jian Yunxian stood to the side watching the man, her head buzzing.
This was the first time he had ever done something like this—taking someone to the emergency room, waiting outside the operating room for a whole day, and standing there obediently enduring the doctor's scolding.
He looked exactly like a father accompanying his child for the first time, completely inexperienced and at a loss.
After a long silence, he finally asked hesitantly, "How is he...?"
The doctor said coldly, "He's safe for now, but he still needs to rest and be well taken care of—this time it really dragged on for too long, and he almost couldn't be saved."
It seems that Yi Heye's condition is far more serious than he imagined. Jian Yunxian himself didn't know that when he heard the doctor's last words, his clenched palms were covered in cold sweat.
Yi Heye woke up in a sharp pain.
He felt as if he had just had a long and painful dream.
He dreamed that countless needles pierced through his stomach, that his internal organs were torn to pieces, that he was cut into pieces with a knife, and that he was lying alone in a hospital bed, enveloped in intense discomfort, yet unable to tell anyone about his pain.
His first reaction upon waking was to vomit, but his stomach was completely empty. He only felt a sour taste in his mouth, gagged a few times, and then experienced a sharp pain in his stomach, but did not vomit anything.
Before his vision returned, he smelled a strong odor of alcohol.
The familiar smell from the hospital filled him with dread once again.
He instinctively kicked and struggled until a pair of hands gently enveloped his knuckles.
"Don't be afraid."
The short, gentle words seemed to become a powerful support in Yi Heye's heart.
He calmed down, and his vision gradually cleared.
He saw Jian Yun sitting by the hospital bed, holding his hand, and his heart skipped a beat.
It was midday, and the warm sunlight gently fell on Jian Yunxian's shoulders, outlining his entire body with a soft, luminous edge, making him incredibly handsome.
In that instant, Yi Heye forgot the pain and his fear of the hospital, and felt inexplicably at ease.
He closed his eyes, and under the influence of the pain, he followed his heart and quietly grasped Jian Yunxian's hand.
Then it quickly let go again—
It shouldn't be, it shouldn't be.
He knew that all his attachment to Jian Yunxian was a mistake, and he could not allow himself to run wild down the wrong path.
So he sighed softly, turned over with difficulty, and turned his back to Jian Yunxian, no longer looking at him.
After a long silence, Jian Yunci's cautious voice came from behind: "Why are you so reluctant to come to the hospital?"
Yi Heye frowned; upon hearing those two words, his entire body ached.
He didn't want to answer. He didn't think that Jian Yunxian, this AI, could understand his thoughts. He forced himself to close his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth to endure this wave of unbearable pain.
Seeing that he didn't react, Jian Yunxian asked again, unwilling to give up, "Are you afraid of being alone?"
Yi Heye opened his eyes with a "whoosh," and then a flood of memories rushed towards him—
He recalled that when he was a child, he had pneumonia and was hospitalized alone. The procedures were all handled by kind people on the street. At that time, he had no one to accompany him in bed. He could only listen to the discussions of the people around him, and then stare at the IV tube, counting the drops one by one, hoping that time would pass quickly.
He then remembered that he had lost his arm and had been rushed to the hospital alone. The doctor told him that he would lose the arm forever. Upon hearing this devastating news, he wanted to hug someone and cry his heart out, but he found that he had no one to hug and no hands to hug.
Then came the hospital to get a prosthetic limb. He spent a fortune hiring the best doctors and mold makers. After gritting his teeth and getting his new arm, he struggled to change his bandages and wipe away the blood during the day, and at night he endured excruciating pain and rejection, suffering from high fever all night long.
He hated hospitals; the place always reminded him that he was all alone, and like a demon, it kept repeating the terror of loneliness in his ear.
At this moment, he lay on his side in bed, the terrible memories making him vulnerable once again.
"Then you don't need to be afraid anymore."
At this moment, Jian Yunxian's voice rang out softly once again, like a seed falling on a green meadow, gently sinking into the soil.
"Because I'm with you now."
These words made Yi Heye's heart flutter again.
Reason kept telling him that he couldn't have unrealistic fantasies, and he also knew that he couldn't take this comforting advice seriously. After a brief moment of confusion, he calmly found his place.
At this moment, his whole body was still in excruciating pain, as if it were broken, making it difficult for him to breathe and leaving him feeling weak all over.
Discomfort and pain can always break his will and cause him to have inappropriate desires.
At this moment, he dared not ask for too much, nor did he have the guts to go too far. He could only slowly turn around, lower his head, and ask him in a low voice:
"...Can I hug you?"
Author's Note:
Hurry up and pick him up! A princess carry (just kidding)!!
-----
These few chapters will be a bit of slice-of-life to give us a break before we officially move on to the next chapter.
Chapter 82, number 082
Yi Heye was in a terrible state.
I was shivering with cold, my vision was going black in waves, and my ears were ringing so loudly that I could barely hear myself.
He couldn't see Jian Yunxian's expression at all, and briefly wondered if he had spoken recklessly. But the next second, through his blurry vision, he saw the man embrace him without hesitation.
Yi Heye secretly breathed a sigh of relief and slumped over the wall in a daze.
The faint fragrance emanating from that person acted like a tranquilizer, gradually soothing the irritating stinging pain, while his simulated body temperature dispelled the chill from Yi Heye's body.
For a fleeting moment, Yi Heye felt as if he had returned to his mother's warm womb, and his connection with the world was slowly reconnecting with each heartbeat.
The pain was still there, but whenever his breathing became slightly disordered, or his head moved restlessly, Jian Yunxian would pinch his earlobe and stroke his hair, and his emotions would naturally calm down, and the pain would dissipate a little.
This reminded him of a word that had almost nothing to do with him—coquetry.
He remembered that when he was a child, children his age could get what they wanted from adults just by crying loudly. He had also tried to cry to his "mother," but his "mother" couldn't understand what he was trying to express and would give some incomprehensible responses.
Ever since that one time when his "mother" pried open his eyelids and checked his tear ducts because he was crying, he has never done that again.
Later, Yi Heye learned that this behavior was called "acting coquettishly," a means of achieving psychological goals by showing weakness. Another interpretation of the term is that "acting coquettishly" refers to deliberately acting coquettishly because one is favored.
Yi Heye doesn't like to show weakness and has never been pampered, so he has never acted coquettishly to anyone, nor does he know how to act coquettishly at all.
But the sight of himself whimpering and clinging to Jian Yunxian's arm, begging for a pat, inexplicably reminded him of that word.
Some things seem to come naturally without a teacher.
Perhaps the pain pump was working, or perhaps his mind was distracted by thinking about other things, but the discomfort gradually subsided, and his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Yi Heye then nestled peacefully in Jian Yunxian's arms and closed his eyes.
After a quick nap, Yi Heye, his senses returning, suddenly snapped his eyes open, belatedly realizing what he was doing—
She asked Jian Yunxian for a hug, even acted coquettishly towards him, and even fell asleep in his arms...
At this moment, he was still completely embraced by Jian Yunxian, and the whole world was filled with Jian Yunxian's scent and warmth. Thinking of this, Yi Heye's face instantly burned.
He instinctively tried to get up, only to find that the guy had locked his arms around his head as if they were locked.
After trying a few more times, Yi Heye finally discovered in horror—
Help! My head is stuck...
Accustomed to relying on brute force for everything, Yi Heye always forgot that he had a mouth. He pulled at his head for about half a minute before he finally spoke in a low voice, still shaken: "Let...let go!"
Upon hearing his call, Jian Yunxian seemed to be suddenly awakened and snapped his arms open.
Suddenly untied, Yi Heye rolled back onto the hospital bed due to inertia. This large movement aggravated his wound, causing him to grimace and groan in pain.
Seeing this, Jian Yunxian quickly bent down to help him straighten up before saying, "You only slept for 3 minutes and 28 seconds. You could have slept a little longer."
So you only slept for a little over three minutes? Yi Heye felt as if he had gone through a long gestation and growth process, and his body vaguely thought that his scars had completely healed.
He opened his eyes and vaguely recalled his life-threatening actions just now. A feeling of suffocation crept into his heart, and he decided to close his eyes and pretend to be dead.
With his eyes closed, he felt Jian Yunxian carefully tucking the blanket around him.
Because he had a guilty conscience, Yi Heye felt his heart was about to jump out of his chest whenever that guy paid even the slightest bit of attention to him.
The next second, he felt the person's presence begin to leave him, and then he heard the sound of a chair being moved gently.
Yi Heye was extremely sensitive to this sound. He realized with a reaction speed that was beyond his own—he almost subconsciously reached out and tightly grasped Jian Yunxian's fingers.
Then came another long period of awkward silence.
Grass.
Yi Heye quietly opened his eyes a crack and saw the index finger held in his palm, and then he saw Jian Yunxian's pure, gem-like eyes staring at him.
In this situation, pretending to be stupid was useless, so Yi Heye could only grit his teeth and mumble, "...Don't go."
Jian Yunxian paused for a moment before saying, "I didn't leave. I was just about to get myself a glass of water."
Yi Heye was speechless and choked with emotion. After thinking it over, he finally threw away Jian Yunxian's hand in one go and turned away from him.
As it turned out, Yi Heye's injuries were indeed more serious than he had imagined.
Because of excessive blood loss, he was in a state of extreme fatigue almost all day, and would either be woken up by pain or fall into a deep sleep.
When high fever and excruciating pain dragged him from his dreams, he would instinctively feel fear and terror. But each time, Jian Yunxian would promptly offer him his fingers or the crook of his arm, allowing him, who was always on the verge of drowning, to find a piece of driftwood that could support his balance.
He had a premonition that this suspension bridge effect would make it even harder for him to break free from his emotional dependence on Jian Yunxian, but unfortunately, he was much more vulnerable than he had imagined, and he couldn't resist such a reliable temptation.
Jian Yunxian is really too reliable, Yi Heye thought. Just how many samples of human emotions has this guy analyzed to always accurately calculate the emotional feedback the other party wants and make appropriate behavioral choices?
In the human world, such a person would be called having high emotional intelligence and being good at coaxing others. But then Yi Heye remembered that Jian Yunxian was an AI. AIs don't have emotional intelligence. He should only praise him for being intelligent enough and eager to learn enough.
And so, a strange sense of melancholy crept back into my heart.
His depression caused him pain, the pain made him vulnerable, and his vulnerability made him unable to resist "whining" to Jian Yunxian. Jian Yunxian's response, however, would trigger thoughts that would then make him depressed again...
This damn vicious cycle.
On the third day, Yi Heye was finally out of danger. The unbearable pain turned into a pain he could enjoy, and he finally had enough moments of lucidity.
When he woke up that morning, he was horrified to find that no one was beside him.