At the same time, Xiao Taozi’s round little face pressed in close beside her. Wen Tingli kissed her little sister on the forehead and made as if to get out of bed.

Michelle hurried over to hold her down: “Miss Wen, please don’t move. This time Dr. Louis has strictly forbidden you from getting out of bed and walking around.”

Zhou Sao got there first, gathering Xiao Taozi into her arms, “Your sister is recovering from her injuries, how can she hold you, little one.”

Then, eyes reddening, she looked Wen Tingli over: “It really scared me half to death. How could a perfectly good set catch fire like that? Thank heavens you’re all right.”

“Why do you look so pale? Did you hear the news last night already?”

“Of course! Yesterday I waited until past midnight and you still hadn’t come home, I was so worried I didn’t dare sleep. I wanted to call Miss Huang, but Mr. Kuang suddenly called instead — Mr. Lu had told him to. Mr. Kuang told me about the fire on the set and said I mustn’t worry at all, and this morning he personally drove over to bring me and Xiao Taozi to the Lu residence. I suspect that was Mr. Lu’s idea too — first, worried you’d miss us, and second, worried we’d be anxious not seeing you… ah, Mr. Lu’s thoughtfulness and consideration really leave one speechless.”

Wen Tingli kept her expression flat and didn’t take up the subject. Just then she heard footsteps in the corridor — Dr. Louis had come in.

“Has her temperature been taken?” Louis asked Michelle the moment he entered.

Michelle pulled out the thermometer and checked it: “A slight fever.”

Louis shook his head repeatedly: “Miss Wen, we warned you before — this stage is when you’re most susceptible to catching a chill. This morning you should have rested properly in bed, but you insisted on going upstairs. Now look — if this brings on pneumonia, it won’t be good at all. For the next few days, you’d best be an obedient patient for me.”

Wen Tingli grumbled: “From now on, even if you force me to go upstairs, I won’t. Not only will I not go, I demand to be ‘discharged’ immediately.”

Louis and Wen Tingli were on fairly familiar terms by now; he was essentially half-informed about her on-again, off-again situation with Lu Shicheng. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but laugh, but he was tactful enough not to ask further.

Just then, someone else arrived. It was Aunt Liu, who had brought people to deliver two sets of daily necessities, saying with a smile: “These towels and cups are all new — Zhou Sao and the young miss should feel free to use them without worry. The guest room has also been tidied up. I’ll take you over there shortly, and you can see what else you might need.”

Zhou Sao was flattered beyond words: “Why be so courteous?”

“This is Mr. Kuang’s idea,” Aunt Liu said warmly. “Mr. Kuang said Miss Wen’s lungs still have some inflammation, and according to the doctors, this means she hasn’t passed the danger period yet. Rather than being jolted about on the road back to the hospital, it’s better to quietly recover here for a few days. Also, the arsonist hasn’t been caught yet — to avoid any more mishaps after returning home, it’s better to stay here at the Lu residence to recuperate in peace. And so that your family can look after one another conveniently, Mr. Kuang specifically instructed us to prepare a guest room next door. Zhou Sao and the young miss should feel at ease staying at the Lu residence — whatever you need, just tell us.”

Zhou Sao looked at Wen Tingli, at a loss.

Louis said from the side: “As your doctor, I don’t approve of your ‘discharge.’ It’s freezing outside, and if you catch a cold wind on the way back, even a minor illness could turn serious. Besides, Miss Wen should be able to guess—”

Only the master of the Lu residence had the standing to invite guests to stay.

Once it had been said this plainly, to leave now would be picking a fight with herself — and Wen Tingli never picked fights with herself. What mattered more was that she worried that man would cause trouble again once she went home. So she said, feigning calm: “Mm, let me think about it.”

But she only pretended to think for all of three seconds before saying: “All right, since you’re all so sincere about keeping us, I’ll trouble you to take the extra care.”

And so, Xiao Taozi and Zhou Sao settled in at the Lu residence as a matter of course. Every morning Zhou Sao would bring Xiao Taozi over to look after Wen Tingli, staying the entire day.

And in charge of watching over Wen Tingli, besides Louis, two more internal medicine doctors from Huiqun Hospital were added. Surrounded by this ring of medical staff, even an occasional sneeze from Wen Tingli would be closely monitored.

Aunt Liu was in charge specifically of Wen Tingli’s meals, with the menu personally approved by Louis — the dishes were not only light and nutritious but endlessly varied. Knowing Wen Tingli loved pastries, the kitchen made easily digestible cakes at every meal, which delighted Xiao Taozi to no end.

After a few days, even Zhou Sao had filled out a bit from all the eating.

Over the past few months, Wen Tingli had had to get up before dawn nearly every day, often not even having time for breakfast before rushing off to class at school or to the set to film.

But during these days recuperating at the Lu residence, she could wake naturally, undisturbed, in a state of having slept her fill.

Each morning when she opened her eyes, she could see the garden beyond the gauze curtains. Though the winter lawn wasn’t as lush green as in summer, under the careful tending of the Lu family, it still held some green. Through the window screen and tree shadows, she could see patches of white “floating clouds” moving about — Wen Tingli knew those were the pigeons Lu Shicheng kept. She thought again of all the various circumstances of how she’d first come to know him — a person only has the leisure to recall such distant details when in an especially unhurried state of mind.

Once her mood relaxed, her body naturally recovered all the faster.

These past few days, Lu Shicheng had been recuperating upstairs the whole time.

Wen Tingli had never once gone back upstairs to see him; she had secretly drawn a line between the first and second floors, a boundary as clear as the Chu-Han border.

But she knew that news concerning her would always find its way to Lu Shicheng’s ears.

Yesterday morning she had merely mentioned offhand that she wanted to eat Siamese pomelo, and by noon Kuang Zhilin had personally brought over a large box to visit her.

The day before, she had only asked Aunt Liu whether there were any toys for children to play with, and that evening someone sent over a whole pile of alphabet blocks for Xiao Taozi.

This was classic “Lu-style” behavior — care and consideration, all expressed through action.

At this point, she was no longer anxious to see Lu Shicheng again. They were both at the Lu residence anyway; sooner or later they’d cross paths. And when that happened, she would be the one holding the psychological upper hand — after all, it was he who had gone to such lengths to keep her here to recover, and he who had taken the initiative to bring Xiao Taozi and the others to the Lu residence to keep her company.

That afternoon, after taking her medicine, she fell asleep.

In her hazy half-sleep, she heard Xiao Taozi in the corridor talking to someone.

At first Wen Tingli only thought she was dreaming, then she suddenly jolted awake, because she realized what Xiao Taozi was calling out was: “Mr. Ru.”

Wen Tingli’s heart gave a jump; she hastily opened her eyes, only to find the room completely empty. Outside, too, was silent — but soon she heard a young man’s voice answer: “Hello, Xiao Taozi.”

Wen Tingli’s mind went blank.

His voice was clear and magnetic, carrying in the quiet afternoon a particular soft quality that tugged at the heartstrings.

Xiao Taozi seemed frozen there too; after a brief silence, she gave a delighted shriek: “Mr. Ru, talk! Mr. Ru, talk talk! Sister!”

Wen Tingli panicked and turned over, her back to the door.

Lu Shicheng seemed to have caught hold of Xiao Taozi.

“Shh.”

Wen Tingli’s heart pounded away without stopping. Xiao Taozi seemed a little puzzled, but Lu Shicheng quickly changed the subject.

“What are you playing?”

“Playing with blocks!” Xiao Taozi had indeed forgotten about going to find her sister. “Big crab, Mr. Lu is helping Xiao Taozi build a big crab.”

Then came the sound of blocks scattering across the floor, Xiao Taozi bouncing excitedly on the marble tiles, her little leather shoes going “pat-pat” repeatedly.

Wen Tingli turned over, stretching her neck long toward the door, feeling for the first time that the wall in front of her was exceedingly irritating. She couldn’t see what was happening outside, could only guess from the sounds that Lu Shicheng was helping Xiao Taozi build with blocks.

Had his pneumonia fully healed? These past days, this was the first time he’d come downstairs.

A few minutes later, she heard Xiao Taozi clap her hands excitedly.

“Done! Big crab!”

Crash — again the sound of blocks being knocked over. “Build again, Mr. Ru.”

Lu Shicheng seemed to feel no impatience at all with Xiao Taozi’s demands; from time to time, the faint sound of blocks being assembled drifted from the corridor floor, that quiet atmosphere involuntarily softening one’s heart.

Not long after, she heard Xiao Taozi cheer happily: “Big frog! Big frog!”

Suddenly she heard Lu Shicheng ask: “Where’s Zhou Sao? Let me take you to find Zhou Sao first, all right?”

Wen Tingli’s heart pounded like a drum. Following the natural course of things, Lu Shicheng would surely take the opportunity to bring Xiao Taozi to find her.

Just as she’d expected, the next moment she heard Lu Shicheng picking up the toys off the floor, Xiao Taozi clumsily joining in: “Xiao Taozi will pick up herself, come on, let’s go find sister—”

Wen Tingli kept her face turned toward the window, eyes closed, pretending to sleep. As long as he brought Xiao Taozi in to see her, she’d open her eyes at the right moment to face him.

And then—

Sure enough, footsteps sounded in the corridor; it seemed Lu Shicheng was bringing Xiao Taozi this way.

With every step he took closer, the sound seemed to knock lightly against Wen Tingli’s heart.

At that moment, the door next door suddenly opened, and Zhou Sao said in a fluster: “Xiao Taozi, Xiao Taozi! Oh my, you scared me. I only dozed off for a moment and you snuck out. Mr. Lu, are you fully recovered? Have you been playing with Xiao Taozi this whole time? I’m terribly sorry, how could we trouble you like this.”

Lu Shicheng said politely: “It’s no trouble.”

Though Zhou Sao had heard earlier about Lu Shicheng’s recovery from his muteness, she still seemed startled by the sound of his voice.

Xiao Taozi’s excited voice rang out again. “Zhou Sao, listen!”

Zhou Sao suddenly came back to herself: “How wonderful, Mr. Lu, you— wait, how many times has your sister taught you, it’s Mr. Lu, not Mr. Ru.”

There was no reply from Lu Shicheng; only Zhou Sao’s timid voice: “Mr. Lu, have you come to visit our young miss? She should be waking up soon.”

Then, footsteps drew closer.

Wen Tingli hastily shut her eyes. Xiao Taozi was the first to run into the room, her small hand gently pushing Wen Tingli’s shoulder, “Sister, sister, wake up quick.”

Wen Tingli could no longer keep up the pretense, and had to turn her head vaguely as if she’d just been woken.

“What’s wrong?” she rubbed her eyes with false innocence, but the moment she opened them, she found only Zhou Sao and Xiao Taozi in the room.

Wen Tingli quickly looked around, confirming Lu Shicheng wasn’t in the room. She forgot to hide her feelings for a moment and said quietly into the pillow: “Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Mr. Lu.”

Zhou Sao now confirmed that Wen Tingli had indeed only been pretending to sleep earlier; she felt a bit like laughing, and a bit regretful as she said. “Mr. Lu stood at the door for a while, but didn’t come in.”

Wen Tingli’s face showed disbelief.

Zhou Sao added: “Mr. Kuang was waiting for Mr. Lu on the steps outside — it looked like they were about to go out.”

Wen Tingli hastily threw off the covers and got out of bed, but then heard the sound of a car starting from the porch in front of the garden. She went to the window to look out and saw exactly Lu Shicheng getting into the car. At that moment, Louis and Michelle came in. Wen Tingli didn’t have time to get back to bed, and the two parties collided head-on.

Louis coughed lightly: “Miss Wen, although the room has heating, it’s still best not to stand by the window — it’s easy to catch a cold.”

Zhou Sao hurriedly grabbed a coat to drape over Wen Tingli, who was staring out the window: “It’s so cold out — are they still going out?”

“Young Master Lu’s cough hasn’t gotten better, so he decided to rest for a few days in a special ward at Huiqun Hospital — they have monitors and oxygen equipment there. Before leaving, he instructed us to keep taking care of you, Miss Wen, and had Mr. Kuang stay behind at the Lu residence to manage affairs. Miss Wen need only rest easy here to recover — everything is the same as before.”

An excuse! It was all an excuse! Just now he’d stood in the corridor for so long, and she hadn’t heard him cough even once.

He simply didn’t want to give the two of them any more chance to get entangled with each other.

To avoid her, he had actually left the entire Lu residence to her and left himself.

She really wanted to corner Lu Shicheng and ask him — what was he afraid of? Afraid of seeing her? Afraid that the moment he saw her, his resolve would waver?

There was no one better at deceiving himself than him.

With this thought, her heart actually settled down calmly. She returned to bed as usual for her treatment, and that evening took Xiao Taozi and Zhou Sao home, leaving behind before she left a very formally worded thank-you letter, and not a single other word.

These past few days she had also come to terms with things — everyone has their own principles for dealing with life, and love is no exception. Lu Shicheng couldn’t get past that barrier in his heart, and she wasn’t willing to give up her own principles. Since neither side would compromise, it was better for each to cool down for a while.

In truth, she didn’t get the chance to keep dwelling on matters between herself and Lu Shicheng, because the moment they got home, a call came in from Gold Films.