Shen Ruoxi was exerting nearly every last ounce of her strength just to hold on to him. And not only did he fail to feel any fear—he still had the composure to make jokes at her expense.

“Shut up and save your strength.” Shen Ruoxi glared furiously at the man, all while continuing to shout for help.

It wasn’t long before people came running at the sound. They were club waiters.

The two of them froze at the scene. One snapped back to his senses and ran off to get help; the other stepped forward to assist.

With everyone working together, Xie Yan was finally pulled to safety. The man who had been so impeccably dressed now looked rather disheveled.

“What happened?” The club manager arrived at the news. “Mr. Xie, are you alright?”

If Xie Yan were to be harmed in his establishment, his club would be finished.

“How did your staff allow this?” The manager, seeing Xie Yan unharmed, began to upbraid the waiters standing nearby. “A perfectly good elevator—how could something like this happen out of nowhere? If Mr. Xie had been injured, not even your lives would be enough to compensate.”

While the manager was still reprimanding his staff, Liu Shu arrived with a group of men.

“Liu Shu, Liu Shu, thank goodness you’re here.” The manager bowed and scraped before Liu Shu. “Liu Shu, please check on Mr. Xie quickly—see if he is alright. This was entirely the fault of our establishment. Whatever demands and conditions Mr. Xie sets, we will agree to all of them.”

Liu Shu gave the manager a nod, then walked over to Xie Yan. “Mr. Xie, would you like to go to the hospital?”

“Yes,” Xie Yan said.

Liu Shu’s expression tightened. Someone like Xie Yan rarely went to the hospital—only for wounds so serious he was nearly at death’s door. The fact that he agreed to go meant he was hurt, and not lightly.

Just as Liu Shu was anxious with worry, Xie Yan reached over and swept Shen Ruoxi off her feet in a horizontal carry.

Caught completely off guard, Shen Ruoxi let out a startled cry: “Xie Yan, what are you doing?”

“Going to the hospital!”

“I’m fine.” Shen Ruoxi said. “You should go instead—your hands are all scraped up.”

“Oh? Worried about me? And here you’re even noticing my hands?” Xie Yan pressed his lips together, a teasing smile forming.

Shen Ruoxi glared at him. “Put me down.”

“Once we’re at the hospital.”

Xie Yan ignored her small struggles and, under the astonished gazes of the onlookers, carried Shen Ruoxi toward the stairwell.

Liu Shu sent men to follow after Xie Yan, then stayed behind himself.

“Manager, please have the area around the elevator cordoned off. I need to bring people in to inspect it.”

“Of course, of course.”

Liu Shu walked over to the elevator and looked down. The entire floor of the elevator shaft had broken away.

An elevator this solid—all iron panels—couldn’t possibly crack open on its own without reason. There was only one explanation: someone had known Xie Yan would be in this club, and had known when he would take the elevator. So they had tampered with it.

The intent was clear—to send Xie Yan plunging from the elevator during his descent. From the fifth floor, a fall would either kill him or leave him permanently maimed.

“Who was playing mahjong with Mr. Xie just now?” Liu Shu asked the manager.

Xie Yan had flashed him a look on the way out, and Liu Shu had immediately understood: the one who wanted to harm him was likely an acquaintance.

The manager quickly turned to a waiter nearby. The waiter said, “Boss Du, Boss Xin, and Boss Jiang.”

“Please take me to see them.”

“Of course, Liu Shu—right this way.”

While Liu Shu was investigating the elevator incident, Xie Yan had already brought Shen Ruoxi to the hospital.

“Xie Yan, I truly am fine.”

“Xie Yan, are you even listening? Put me down.”

Shen Ruoxi, noticing the passersby glancing their way, was mortified and furious.

“Shen Ruoxi, look—everyone’s looking at you.” Xie Yan strode forward with her in his arms and still found time to tease.

Shen Ruoxi saw two nurses covering their mouths to hide their laughter, and quickly buried her face in Xie Yan’s chest. She truly couldn’t face anyone right now.

As for the head suddenly burrowing against him, Xie Yan only smiled inwardly.

In the examination room sat a female doctor who appeared to be in her mid-fifties, wearing a pair of round glasses.

“Oh, young man—what happened to your wife?”

A couple openly holding and carrying each other in broad daylight—the doctor’s first thought was naturally that they were husband and wife. Society’s customs hadn’t yet opened up to this degree.

“Doctor, I am not his—”

“She’s hurt.” Xie Yan cut off Shen Ruoxi’s protest. “Doctor, please take a look.”

“Where is she hurt? How did it happen?” The doctor pushed up her glasses. “Young man, set your wife down first.”

Xie Yan set Shen Ruoxi down on the examination bed nearby and bent over her, gazing at her already flushed face. “Take your clothes off and let the doctor have a look.”

“I said I’m fine…”

“Shall I help you take them off?”

Shen Ruoxi shot him a glare.

Xie Yan made as if he were actually going to do it. Shen Ruoxi hastily stopped him. “I’ll do it myself. You—out.”

“Ha ha.” The doctor laughed from the side: “You two are already a couple—there’s no need to be shy. This girl is just modest.”

Xie Yan found the doctor before him warmhearted and wonderfully easy to talk to: “Doctor, please examine her carefully. I’ll step out.”

Seeing Xie Yan actually leave, and with the doctor having drawn the white curtain, Shen Ruoxi finally moved to undress.

“Oh dear, how did this happen—her whole arm is bruised.” The doctor took Shen Ruoxi’s arm. “Was this clamped by something?”

Shen Ruoxi glanced down at her own arm. Sure enough, there was a large purple bruise. At the time she had been completely focused on holding onto Xie Yan, and when the elevator had clamped her it had hurt badly—but she hadn’t been able to think about it then.

Being carried in his arms the whole way here, her mind had been consumed entirely by embarrassment. Only now, seeing this bruise, did she feel how much it truly ached.

“I’ll put some medicine on it first to bring down the swelling.” The doctor said. “Don’t get it wet once you’re home.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

Shen Ruoxi had barely finished applying the medicine when Xie Yan came back in. From behind the curtain, he asked, “Do you need any help?”

“I don’t—Hss!”

The moment he heard that sound, Xie Yan didn’t even think—he pulled the curtain aside and stepped in. He arrived to find Shen Ruoxi pulling on her sweater; the stretching motion had tugged at the bruise on her arm, and she had let out an involuntary gasp.

“Xie Yan, why did you come in?” Shen Ruoxi saw him and quickly hugged her half-worn clothing tightly.

“I’m here to help you get dressed.” Xie Yan strode over. “See how kind I am.”

“I don’t need your kindness.” Shen Ruoxi glared at him. “Get out.”

“Relax, the doctor’s gone.” He said, reaching out and pulling the hands clutching her clothes away. “I’ve said it before—what haven’t I already seen? For instance, your left and right sides are asymmetrical—one is a bit larger, one a bit smaller…”

Shen Ruoxi’s face turned scarlet in an instant. “Xie Yan, what utter nonsense are you spouting?”

“I felt it myself. How is that nonsense?”

Shen Ruoxi thought of that morning and wanted nothing more than to land a solid kick on Xie Yan’s face. “Stop talking.”

“I’ll stop talking—just let me help you get dressed.”

“Xie Yan…”

“I promise I won’t do anything.” Xie Yan pulled her hands away and took the sleeve of the sweater. “You’re injured. If I tried anything while you’re hurt, wouldn’t that make me an animal?”

“Aren’t you already?” Shen Ruoxi looked at him, but she stopped resisting—because the movements with which he was dressing her were genuinely gentle and careful.

“I’m an animal in your eyes, Shen Ruoxi?”

“Yes.”

Xie Yan’s brow furrowed slightly, but he didn’t argue. He carefully guided the sweater sleeve over her injured arm.

With both sleeves on, he leaned close to pull down the hem of the sweater—a posture that resembled an embrace, though it wasn’t one. Even knowing it wasn’t, Shen Ruoxi felt a slight awkwardness.

“Are you done?”

“Still need the outer coat.”

Xie Yan picked up her coat. “Just drape it over your shoulders—I’ll carry you out.”

“It’s my arm that’s injured, not my legs.” Shen Ruoxi firmly refused. She absolutely did not want to be paraded through the hospital like a spectacle again the way she’d arrived.

Xie Yan relented for once. “Alright, alright—I’ll help you put it on.”

After leaving the hospital and returning to Shen Ruoxi’s apartment, Xie Yan poured her a cup of hot water first. “You drink this while I have someone go buy dinner.”

“There’s no need. I’ll eat at the dance hall tonight.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Xie Yan said with displeasure. “You’re injured and you’re still thinking about going to work?”

“This injury is minor. Besides, singing doesn’t require the use of your arms.”

“You don’t hold a microphone? You don’t dance? Even if you don’t dance, you can’t just stand there like a wooden post, can you?”

Shen Ruoxi: “……”

“Don’t worry—the dance hall is mine. I’m not going to fire you.” Xie Yan pressed the cup into her hands. “I’ll have someone go tell the floor manager. You don’t need to be there—the dance hall won’t collapse without you. No need to be so dedicated.”

This time Shen Ruoxi did not argue. She obediently took the cup.

“I want to ask you something.” Xie Yan sat down across from her, fixing her with a pair of eyes that seemed at once naive and entrancing.

“Ask what?” Shen Ruoxi cradled the cup, feeling somewhat uneasy under his gaze.

“If I had fallen just now, would you have cried?”

Shen Ruoxi wanted nothing more than to throw the cup at him. “Cried? You think too highly of yourself. I wouldn’t have cried—I’d have been glad.”

“Why would you be glad? You have no reason to be.”

Shen Ruoxi: “……”

He was right. They had no grievance between them. Why would she be glad?

“Then why did you push me out of the way back there?” With the danger past, the two of them sat together calmly now, and Shen Ruoxi’s mind gradually returned to clarity.

“Instinct.”

Had he not shoved her aside, she might have stepped into the elevator with him. She didn’t have his agility. If she had fallen, it would have meant certain death.

“Xie Yan, who is trying to harm you?”

Xie Yan looked thoroughly unconcerned, picking up a cigarette and lighting it for himself. “There are many people who want to harm me—some openly, some in secret. Too many to count.”

“Has it always been like this for you?”

“I have a hard life.” Xie Yan suddenly leaned his face toward hers. “Many people have tried to kill me, but none have succeeded.”

“Aren’t you going to look into it?”

“Old Liu will handle it.”

Xie Yan suddenly smiled. “Shen Ruoxi, are you concerned about me?”