Manual resetting was indeed painful, but as Meng Yu’s hands moved over Lu Shian’s shoulder, a wave of tingling numbness bloomed amidst the pain.
Meng Yu carried a faint, fresh scent of lemon that mingled with the smell of alcohol and disinfectant.
The white-coated figure swayed before Lu Shian’s eyes with every movement. Unexplainable emotions tangled at the tip of his heart, and the combined sensation of numbness and pain made him irritable. He simply closed his eyes, refusing to look at the person in front of him.
He gritted his teeth and endured until Meng Yu stopped to rub medicated oil on him to promote blood circulation. Only then did he open his eyes.
Meng Yu had relaxed his grip and was being as gentle as possible, but Lu Shian was still drenched in a cold sweat from the pain. Despite the agony, he had not made a single sound from beginning to end.
After applying the oil, Meng Yu assisted him into a sitting position. “You can get dressed now.”
Lu Shian reached for the clothes he had placed by the bed earlier. Once he grasped them, however, he was at a loss as to how to put them on. His entire body felt numb with pain. The high-difficulty task of dressing himself with only one functional hand was currently beyond his strength.
“Call my assistant in,” Lu Shian said, his voice noticeably quieter and lacking its usual vigor.
Meng Yu raised an eyebrow slightly. “You want him to dress you?”
“Yes,” Lu Shian squeezed the syllable out from his nose.
“Your joint was just reset. If you handle it improperly, it could easily dislocate again. I will dress you.” Meng Yu gave Lu Shian no chance to refuse as he took the clothes and began putting them on him.
Meng Yu’s fingers inevitably brushed against Lu Shian’s skin. Lu Shian kept his brow furrowed throughout the process, his expression turning even colder.
Once Lu Shian was dressed, Meng Yu secured his shoulder joint with a sling against his chest and reminded him, “No activity for at least two weeks.”
“Wait a minute.” Lu Shian suddenly realized something. “How am I supposed to shower or change clothes like this?”
Meng Yu looked at him with a faint, knowing smile. “In your condition, showering is not recommended. If you absolutely must wash, you will need professional help.”
Lu Shian looked at him and let out a cold sneer. “I almost forgot. I have a private doctor.”
“Oh,” Meng Yu’s tone rose. Though it was a response, it sounded like a pointed question to Lu Shian’s ears.
Lu Shian did not want to stay with him a second longer. He took a breath, stood up, and prepared to leave. He had only taken two steps when Meng Yu called out to him.
“Lu Shian.” He used his full name.
Startled for a moment, Lu Shian slowly turned around and waited for him to continue.
Meng Yu looked back at him, the corners of his lips hooked in his usual shallow smile. “Long time no see.”
Those four words struck the bottom of Lu Shian’s heart, perfectly setting the atmosphere for a reunion between old acquaintances. The lights in the treatment room were so bright they were almost blinding. Lu Shian looked at Meng Yu, his lips moving, but he did not return the expected greeting.
Instead, he asked, “How long is long?”
Meng Yu raised his hand to check his watch. He hesitated for only two seconds before swallowing the words “three days and eleven hours” that had almost escaped his lips. He changed his answer. “Six years, five months, and twenty-eight days.”
Lu Shian’s heart skipped a beat. His memory was hazy; he only vaguely remembered that they had been apart for about six years. But how could this man remember it so precisely?
Looking at the person in front of him, Meng Yu appeared almost exactly as he did in his memories. He had not changed much. He was still gentle, and his emotions remained stable. It seemed that over all these years, he was the only one who had changed.
The thoughts in Lu Shian’s eyes were difficult to read. After staring at Meng Yu for a while, he let out a mock laugh. “We were not lovers in the past, nor were we truly friends. Using long time no see feels inappropriate.”
Meng Yu gazed back at him, remaining calm. After a long pause, Lu Shian said, “It has been a while, Doctor Meng.”
“Long time no see” was a standard phrase for a reunion, but Lu Shian felt that using it between them carried an unexplainable hint of intimacy and ambiguity. “It has been a while” sounded more polite and distant, which seemed more fitting for their situation.
Meng Yu smiled, now essentially certain that Lu Shian did not remember what happened between them that night. He followed his lead and replied, “President Lu, it has been a while.”
Lu Shian did not linger. He turned, opened the door, and walked out. Lu Xuelan, Jiang Yu, and Qi Lei were waiting outside. As soon as Lu Shian emerged, they surrounded him with questions.
Meng Yu followed him out and gave instructions to the more composed Qi Lei. “President Lu has injuries to his head and left shoulder and needs to stay for observation. The VIP ward in Neurosurgery is full, so the hospital has arranged for him to stay in Orthopedics. A doctor from Neurosurgery will check his head recovery daily. I am his attending physician here; contact me immediately if anything happens.”
After speaking, he did not stay long and went back to write the medical orders. Once Jiang Yu came out with his right arm in a cast, Meng Yu called him into the hospital stairwell.
Confused, Jiang Yu asked, “Doctor Meng, is something wrong? Why the mystery?”
Meng Yu got straight to the point. “I have a question regarding President Lu.”
Jiang Yu looked conflicted. “I would not call it advice, but if it is about my uncle, there are some things I cannot say.”
“I am not trying to pry into his privacy. I just want to know if President Lu blacks out when he drinks.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Meng Yu felt it was inappropriate. Blacking out could be considered private information; if an outsider knew, they could easily take advantage of it.
However, this matter was very important to him. He had to know.
Seeing Jiang Yu’s hesitant expression, Meng Yu tried a different angle. “If President Lu blacks out when drinking, it means alcohol causes severe damage to his central nervous system. Since he has a head injury, it is best for him to quit drinking altogether.”
As expected, once health was involved, Jiang Yu told the truth. “Yes, he blacks out, and it is the serious kind. It is no different from amnesia. He saw a doctor before who mentioned something about the hippocampus. Anyway, I cannot explain it clearly.”
Meng Yu finished the thought for him. “Alcohol affects the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe of the brain, which manages memory. The brain becomes a malfunctioning machine, crashing or suspending work. Blacking out falls into two categories: partial forgetting or total forgetting. In President Lu’s case, it is the latter.”
“Exactly,” Jiang Yu agreed. “Is that so? Does that mean he cannot drink anymore? I have to convince him to quit.”
“It is not that he cannot drink at all, but he should drink less.” Meng Yu’s mind was in a state of chaos, so he ended the conversation quickly. “I have my answer. Thank you.”
So, Lu Shian truly did not know that the person he was with that night was him. He was not faking it. A certain tremor grew in the depths of his heart. So, regarding what happened back then, he had simply forgotten. He had just forgotten.
As he thought about this, he became uncharacteristically restless. He prided himself on his emotional stability, having been polished into a steady man by his experiences over the years. But whenever he encountered Lu Shian, he would still lose control.
That night, when the two of them were together, he carried the obsession he had held for Lu Shian all these years and a complex mix of emotions he could not even explain. Beyond the lust that made him wild in bed, there was a buried resentment that surfaced in his actions. He had been a bastard; when he possessed him, he had been a bit cruel.