Lin Zhuo sat down with a dark expression. “Since you want to die, I won’t stop you.”
He crossed his arms, crossed his legs, and completely ignored Fu Baizhou.
Catching a trace of moisture on the bed out of the corner of his eye, he looked over and saw Fu Baizhou silently shedding tears.
In all his years, Lin Zhuo had never encountered such a situation.
Just because he scolded him a little, he was crying aggrievedly?
If he were this fragile himself, there was no way he could have survived safely until now.
Lin Zhuo originally wanted to go to the nurses’ station to call a nurse, but judging by the current situation…
The moment he made a move, a gaze followed him.
In the end, he still compromised.
“Fine, I won’t go. I’ll press the call button.”
A nurse quickly arrived at the ward, re-bandaged Fu Baizhou, and urged Lin Zhuo to watch him closely before leaving, noting that wounds that kept reopening do not heal easily.
After tossing and turning for so long, Lin Zhuo was also tired, but Fu Baizhou looked very energetic. No matter where Lin Zhuo stood, Fu Baizhou’s gaze followed him.
“I’m getting ready to sleep. Are you sleeping?”
Fu Baizhou shifted a little closer to the edge of the hospital bed. “Sleep together.”
Lin Zhuo was just about to curse, but the thought of Fu Baizhou crying made him say euphemistically, “You’re a wounded patient right now; I can’t crowd you.”
“Won’t.” Fu Baizhou shook his head resolutely, patting the spot beside him heavily, as if he wouldn’t mind making a fuss if Lin Zhuo didn’t come up.
Lin Zhuo clearly hadn’t expected Fu Baizhou to be so hard to coax, yet he had never once shared a bed with a man.
Especially remembering how the man called him wife, he felt a deep sense of repulsion in his heart.
Regardless of whether Fu Baizhou was gay or not, he did not want to get into his bed.
“I’m going to rest.” Lin Zhuo turned his back to Fu Baizhou, took off his shoes, and prepared to get into bed.
Just as his knee pressed onto the mattress, Fu Baizhou leaned over, grabbed his hand, and stubbornly said, “Sleep together.”
With the two beds about a meter apart, Fu Baizhou did this without caring at all whether his wound would tear open.
Lin Zhuo disliked demands that were half-coercive, and his relationship with Fu Baizhou wasn’t good enough for them to share a bed.
He pried open Fu Baizhou’s fingers. “You’re a wounded patient right now. You need to be obedient.”
Whether it was a specific word he took to heart, Fu Baizhou didn’t pester Lin Zhuo anymore.
Seeing that Fu Baizhou’s complexion didn’t look too good, Lin Zhuo couldn’t bear it in the end. He walked to his side, patted his back, and said softly, “You suffered a very serious injury, and right now is exactly when you need to rest.”
Fu Baizhou’s eyes were glistening with moisture, and he wanted to grab Lin Zhuo’s hand, yet he was afraid of making him angry.
He asked, “Then can we sleep together when I’m better?”
“Get your injuries healed first.” Lin Zhuo didn’t know Fu Baizhou’s orientation yet and didn’t dare make promises blindly.
Fu Baizhou obediently lay down. Lin Zhuo tucked the blanket in for him and turned off the ward lights under his gaze.
The room plunged into darkness, and Lin Zhuo climbed into bed, closing his eyes to enter a sleep state.
The surrounding sounds were magnified countless times, and Fu Baizhou’s uneven breathing was clearly audible in his ears.
Worried that Fu Baizhou’s wound would become infected again, Lin Zhuo asked, not without a touch of concern, “Does it hurt a lot?”
Fu Baizhou’s voice was deep, carrying a faint sense of enticement in the dark. “A little.”
Lin Zhuo asked, “Do you need me to call a doctor?”
“No need, I can bear it,” Fu Baizhou said indifferently, his tone holding a trace of endurance.
Lin Zhuo didn’t want to show excessive care toward Fu Baizhou; a large part of this reluctance stemmed from the system’s mission.
As his primary observation target, Fu Baizhou at least showed no danger to him right now.
Being killed by Fu Baizhou was nothing more than self-defense. When it came down to it, Fu Baizhou wasn’t the only one at fault in this matter.
It was just that the system said Fu Baizhou would eventually destroy the world, so he definitely wasn’t as harmless as he looked.
Or perhaps, in the near future, he would experience something that would completely transform his personality.
He knew nothing, and the system knew nothing either.
Their only golden cheat was reloading a save and starting over.
Around ten in the morning.
Lin Zhuo opened his eyes and woke up to see An Wan peeling an apple nearby.
She wore a black turtleneck sweater today, paired with a brown trench coat on the outside.
Her tall figure made this outfit extremely pleasing to the eye.
“Auntie.” After a day of adaptation, Lin Zhuo could now call her auntie quite smoothly.
An Wan acknowledged it and asked him, “What kind of relationship do you have with that friend of yours?”
Lin Zhuo was puzzled. “My relationship with him… if you calculate it, it’s a bit complicated. Auntie, is something wrong?”
Could there be a problem with Fu Baizhou’s identification information?
An Wan had arrived early in the morning, and upon pushing the door open, she had been inevitably surprised to see the two men lying on the same bed.
Two men squeezed onto a not-so-large bed with their bodies pressed against each other—is that something friends could do?
An Wan observed every word and action of Lin Zhuo, and judging by his reaction, he presumably didn’t hold that kind of affection for Fu Baizhou.
She shook her head. “Nothing. Are you hungry? I brought you breakfast.”
Lin Zhuo nodded. “I’m going to wash up.”
He spent a few minutes washing up and quickly finished his breakfast. Once he was full and satisfied, he finally remembered that another patient was lying on the other bed.
Fu Baizhou leaned against the head of the bed, holding a tablet, wearing headphones, and quietly watching something.
Lin Zhuo asked, “Has he eaten?”
“You’re only remembering him now?” An Wan chuckled softly, basically able to confirm that Lin Zhuo harbored no ulterior motives toward Fu Baizhou.
Yet just as this thought was settled, Fu Baizhou removed his headphones and said, “I can’t eat, wife.”
An Wan suspected she had misheard. “Wife?”
“Cough, cough, cough. Auntie, it’s not like that; listen to my explanation.”
Through Lin Zhuo’s stuttering explanation, An Wan barely managed to sort out the reasons behind it.
Because of a trauma-induced dissociative amnesia caused by his injuries, Fu Baizhou had mistaken his savior Lin Zhuo for his wife and wanted to repay the kindness with his body.
An Wan didn’t pursue the matter further. “I’ve cleared my schedule for today, Xiao Zhuo. Want to go out for a stroll with Auntie?”
Staying in the hospital was indeed stuffy, plus there was a silly dog nearby who only knew how to call him wife.
“Let’s go!” Without almost any hesitation, Lin Zhuo agreed readily.
Fu Baizhou raised his hand. “Then what about me?”
An Wan smiled and said, “You rest well in the hospital. Once you recover your health, we can all go out for a stroll together.”
Lin Zhuo echoed, “That’s right, your primary task right now is to recover your health.”
An Wan took Lin Zhuo to the city’s most bustling shopping mall to buy items.
Lin Zhuo had previously complained that the system hadn’t arranged the identity of a rich second-generation heir for him, but every single item An Wan bought him was exorbitantly expensive.
After starting work, Lin Zhuo had lived a frugal life to save money to marry a wife, never expecting that one day he would actually be able to wear underwear costing three thousand yuan a piece.
“Xiao Zhuo, what plans do you have next?” On the way back, An Wan chatted with Lin Zhuo.
Lin Zhuo had merely been an office clerk in his own world, and arriving in this world with such a huge opportunity, he suddenly didn’t know what to do.
To take a step back, couldn’t he really just lie flat and sponge off his aunt?
Not getting an answer, An Wan said, “I see your educational background is a junior college degree. Are you interested in continuing your studies?”
Lin Zhuo asked in astonishment, “Can I?”
“Of course you can,” An Wan smiled gently.
It wasn’t until three in the afternoon that An Wan dropped Lin Zhuo back at the hospital. Just before leaving, she said, “Xiao Zhuo, you’ve suffered these past few years.”
Her eyes were filled with heartache.
A lump formed in Lin Zhuo’s throat; actually, he had long since grown accustomed to being alone.
Yet he still couldn’t help yearning for it.
His nose stung, and he forcefully suppressed the urge to cry. “Auntie, thank you.”
An Wan nodded.
After she left, Lin Zhuo remembered her words and asked the system, “What’s going on?”
The system cannot fabricate memories at present, so it replicated the experiences of the you from that world.
Lin Zhuo returned to the ward, and Fu Baizhou was sleeping.
The sound of the door opening was quiet, and by the time Lin Zhuo raised his eyes again, Fu Baizhou had turned over and sat up, speaking with the thick nasal congestion of someone who had just woken up: “Wife, you’re back.”
Lin Zhuo was already too lazy to correct his form of address. He walked up to his hospital bed and asked, “After your injuries heal, what plans do you have?”