Acute Gastritis
Aunt Li’s scolding gradually faded into the distance. Qin Mingzhu looked around the messy living room and smacked her forehead.
It seemed she had caused trouble again. She felt guilty about always getting into some mess every few days, but she just couldn’t help speaking her mind each time.
Feeling sheepish, she circled the living room and decided to act as if nothing had happened, returning to her room.
Around noon, Gu Jingchen surprisingly sent her a message on his own.
Qin Mingzhu jumped up, thinking Aunt Li had already tattled to him. But when she opened it, she realized he was simply asking if she had eaten lunch.
He was actually concerned about her?
Qin Mingzhu fell into thought.
She couldn’t blame herself for overthinking normally, with Gu Jingchen’s personality, he wouldn’t send messages casually.
This was strange.
Could it be that she had accidentally said something last night?
No matter how hard she tried, Qin Mingzhu couldn’t recall her state when she “lost it” and sighed. She casually lied in her reply, then grabbed a pile of snacks and went to the movie room to watch films.
She was actually quite interested in filmmaking, but once she thought about how most of her pay would be taken by Qin Hai, her enthusiasm evaporated instantly.
The light from the screen flickered on and off. While watching, she analyzed the characters’ psychology, rewatching the same scenes two or three times. Her eyelids grew heavier, and she fell asleep without realizing it.
When Gu Jingchen returned home, the whole villa was pitch dark.
He rubbed his forehead, recalling Qin Mingzhu’s state last night, and called out her name, worried.
Unfortunately, the soundproofing in the house was excellent. After several attempts and unanswered calls, he had to search room by room.
Finally, he found a little plush figure in a corner of the movie room.
Wrapped in a snowy white blanket, Qin Mingzhu was sleeping soundly. Gu Jingchen furrowed his brows and leaned over to push her shoulder. “Why didn’t you turn on the light again?”
If something like last night happened again, with the villa empty, who would help her?!
“Ugh… I’m watching a movie,” Qin Mingzhu mumbled, half asleep, frowning, “Ahh…”
Her stomach hurt so much!
“Gu… Gu Jingchen, my stomach hurts.”
She pressed her hands over her stomach, and Gu Jingchen’s anger immediately dissipated. He crouched slightly and said patiently, “Move your hands, I can’t see otherwise.”
Qin Mingzhu, pale with pain, barely moved her hands aside, letting him see.
“Seems like your stomach.” His gaze was slightly cold. “You had lunch today, right?”
Last night’s medicine could irritate the stomach, or he wouldn’t have reminded her specifically at noon.
“I… I…” Qin Mingzhu’s eyes darted nervously as she stammered an excuse, “I had lunch, but I didn’t eat dinner.”
“Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital.”
It was urgent. Gu Jingchen didn’t waste time checking whether she was lying, crouched, and turned his back for her to climb onto his shoulders.
Qin Mingzhu quickly clambered up.
She had no idea why skipping a meal made her stomach hurt this much.
Was this divine punishment for lying at lunch?
Lying on his broad shoulders, she felt like crying but couldn’t. She thought to herself: never lie again.
The movie room was on the third floor. Gu Jingchen’s steps down the stairs were steady; surprisingly, Qin Mingzhu felt little jostling.
She tried to ease her breathing, guilty “Gu Jingchen, aren’t you tired? Maybe you can just hold me while I walk down myself.”
“Stop talking nonsense,” Gu Jingchen said coldly. “You’re just a woman; I can carry you easily.”
If he weren’t worried about time, he could have carried her all the way down, avoiding the jolts to her stomach.
As her pain worsened, Qin Mingzhu shivered and moaned, “I’m going to vomit… what if I throw up on you?”
“If you dare, I’ll make you swallow it back.”
Qin Mingzhu quickly closed her mouth, feeling wronged. “I’m sick, and you’re still so mean.”
Gu Jingchen bent down, laying her flat in the back seat, noticing sweat all over her back.
His own breathing was uneven he grabbed a blanket and covered her. “Once you’re better, I won’t be mean anymore.”
The sound of a car door slamming nearby made Qin Mingzhu clutch the corner of the blanket, thinking in a daze: aren’t men supposed to cherish their cars? Who slams the door like that and risks breaking it just to make a point?
Gu Jingchen seemed not like that kind of man.
He slammed the car door pretty hard.
Qin Mingzhu shifted to a more comfortable position and spoke whimsically: “I thought you were going to leave me alone just now.”
“Am I that kind of person?”
Qin Mingzhu felt reassured. “No, you’re not. You’re good, a good person.”
Gu Jingchen said coolly, “I just don’t like taking off my pants to fart.”
He didn’t want to rescue her; leaving her in the movie room to fend for herself would have been enough. Why bother bringing her into the car?
If Qin Mingzhu were fully alert, she might have caught the hidden meaning in his words. But her mind was a total mess. She only widened her eyes slightly and scolded, “Gu Jingchen, you can’t just swear like that!”
Talking about taking off pants and farting so rude.
Gu Jingchen moved his lips slightly but saw the pained expression on her face in the rearview mirror and swallowed the words.
He refrained from reminding her that she had just said, “I feel like I’m going to vomit.” A little consideration for the weak and sick here, “weak” referred to a feeble mind.
The villa was only ten minutes from the nearest private hospital. When Gu Jingchen strode in with her in his arms, the nurse led them straight to the director’s office.
“Initial diagnosis: acute gastritis.”
Qin Mingzhu lay on the hospital bed, listening to the director’s words.
“Has this happened before?”
“No…” Qin Mingzhu replied instinctively.
A daughter raised properly by the Qin family how could she have gastritis?
But then she remembered, she had.
Before fourteen, she wasn’t a daughter of the wealthy Qin family.
“I have.”
“Did you, or didn’t you?”
Qin Mingzhu whispered guiltily: “I did.”
“What did you have for lunch today?”
Another gaze in the room burned into her.
Qin Mingzhu swallowed. “Doctor, aren’t patients supposed to be alone during exams?”
Gu Jingchen shot a cold glance at the doctor.
The director pushed up his glasses and said seriously, “Family members are allowed.”
“You didn’t tell me, you lied at lunch, did you?” Gu Jingchen sneered.
“You can’t scare the patient,” Qin Mingzhu said quietly.
For her own health, she confessed painfully.
Her lunch had been nothing but spicy strips and chips, and she hadn’t even drunk water just soda.
If Gu Jingchen hadn’t been there, the doctor would have poked her nose with a pen. “You ate all this junk and wonder why you have acute gastritis? You’ve had it before; now you need to watch your diet even more!”
Qin Mingzhu got scolded thoroughly, but it wasn’t too bad. After the doctor’s lecture, Gu Jingchen calmed down.
She would stay in the hospital for observation tonight. Gu Jingchen sat idly by the bed, scrolling on his phone.