To prove she wasn’t old at all, that she was still a youthful and beautiful young woman, Lin Mian bit down hard on He Duoye’s shoulder. She really put all her strength into it, feeling as if she was about to tear a piece off his trapezius muscle.
The next second, Lin Mian began to waver, wondering if she might have bitten too hard… But if she let go now, wouldn’t that make her look cowardly?
Besides, He Duoye was truly infuriating.
Over the years, not only had his physique become more solid and sexy, but he had also grown even more insufferable—and now he had power and influence too.
What if she made him angry by biting him, and he hung her up to feed to the tigers again?
Just as Lin Mian was wrestling with these thoughts, she suddenly felt He Duoye’s hand, still resting on the back of her head, gently stroke her hair.
She was lying on top of him, while he remained still, his other hand resting on the small of her back.
The surroundings were quiet, the lights bright. In a fleeting moment of confusion, Lin Mian felt as if she had returned to the past.
Back to those times when, after bickering and wrestling with He Duoye in bed, they would simply hold each other and drift into a daze.
Her heart skipped a beat, and her thoughts grew tangled. Lin Mian released her teeth, swallowed, and just as she was about to say something, He Duoye suddenly rolled to one side.
He pinned her slender body against him, his hand moving downward without hesitation.
“Time for your examination, ex-girlfriend.”
Lin Mian: “…”
She shouldn’t have softened her heart.
That bastard deserved to be bitten to death!
By the time Lin Mian thought of running, it was already too late.
Not only was she thoroughly examined, but she was also forced to examine her ex-boyfriend.
After being tormented for most of the night, she drifted into a heavy sleep, only to spend the rest of the night trapped in nightmares of being suffocated by coiling snakes.
When Lin Mian woke up, He Duoye was nowhere to be seen by the bed.
She lay weakly on the bed for a while, her body feeling even more exhausted. Not only was her back sore and her head aching, but her entire body felt weak, and her legs were uncomfortable too.
Lin Mian stared at the ornate ceiling.
He Duoye, over these past two nights, had carried a sense of urgency and ferocity, as if he hadn’t had meat in a long time and was desperate for it. It reminded her of… when she first left for college, and they were apart for a month, only to reunite during her period.
It was like He Duoye’s famished state after nearly forty days of separation.
But how could that be possible?
He clearly kept a pair of stunningly beautiful and sexy twins in the manor.
More likely, it was just a fleeting novelty.
After all, their bodies had always been perfectly compatible.
Lin Mian struggled to sit up, firmly telling herself that she must leave this wretched place as soon as possible and shake off this damn ex-boyfriend for good.
Never think of him again.
With great effort, Lin Mian placed her feet on the ground. As soon as she stood up, the world spun around her, her head throbbing and dizzy.
She collapsed back onto the bed, belatedly realizing that she was sick.
A touch to her forehead confirmed it—she was burning up.
No wonder she felt unusually weak. It wasn’t just exhaustion…
After leaning against the bed for a while, gathering a bit of strength, Lin Mian pushed herself up and stumbled to the door, her head heavy and her steps unsteady.
Fortunately, as soon as she opened the door, she ran into a maid cleaning the hallway.
“I have a fever,” Lin Mian said. “Could you please bring me some water and…”
Before she could finish, darkness clouded her vision, and she collapsed to the floor with a thud.
The maid hurried over to help her up, calling out loudly for assistance.
After a flurry of activity, Lin Mian was quickly taken to the medical room for a basic checkup. Her fever had already reached 39 degrees Celsius, her cheeks were flushed red, and her breathing was rapid.
The family doctor speculated that the cause of her illness might be due to her recent exhaustion from constant travel, getting caught in the rain, experiencing shock, and being forced to move to an entirely unfamiliar country—her body simply couldn’t handle it all at once, leading to the fever.
Alternatively, she might have contracted some virus during her journey, which had lain dormant for a few days before suddenly flaring up.
The family doctor administered an IV drip of fever-reducing medication and drew a tube of blood to send to the hospital for testing.
“We’ll observe first to see if the fever subsides. If it goes down, she should be fine… I’ll bring back the blood test results by evening.”
Uncle Jixiang had been following along the whole time and said gently, “Alright, thank you for your trouble.”
Seeing Lin Mian lying unconscious and quietly receiving the IV drip, Uncle Jixiang walked outside the room and took out his phone. Just then, he saw Meizhu approaching.
“Miss Meizhu,” Uncle Jixiang greeted her respectfully.
Meizhu gave a slight nod and walked past Uncle Jixiang toward the room, her tone cool and composed. “I’ve come to see her.”
“Of course.” Watching Meizhu enter the room, Uncle Jixiang picked up his phone again and walked to a corner, where he dialed He Duoye’s number.
“Speak.”
“Third Young Master, Miss Lin suddenly fainted earlier. Her fever has reached 39 degrees, and she’s currently on an IV drip,” Uncle Jixiang reported in detail. “Miss Meizhu is visiting her right now. Would you like to come back and see her? We still don’t know if her illness is due to an infection or if her fever will subside smoothly today.”
He Duoye chuckled, his tone lazy and arrogant, with little sincerity. “Of course I’ll come back to see her. She is, after all, my beloved first love. Take good care of her for me. If she gets hurt or something happens to her again, I’ll hang you up, cut you into pieces, and turn you into manure.”
With that, the call ended abruptly.
Uncle Jixiang stared at his phone, his perpetually kind and gentle face now tinged with coldness.
It was at that moment Meizhu emerged from the room.
Uncle Jixiang looked up, his usual smile returning. “Miss Meizhu.”
Meizhu gave another slight nod before walking away directly, as if she had truly only come to take a look.
Lin Mian drifted in and out of a heavy, feverish sleep.
Occasionally, discomfort would jolt her awake for a brief moment before she slipped back into unconsciousness. In her fragmented state, she began to dream.
She dreamed of a time in high school when she had fallen ill.
Lin Mian had always been in good health, rarely even catching a cold since childhood. The only time she had suffered a severe fever was when an infectious flu outbreak occurred at her school, and her deskmate had been infected.
Confident in her strong constitution, she initially paid it no mind, believing her excellent immune system would protect her from falling ill.
But that evening, while working on her homework, she began to feel a headache coming on.
At first, she thought she was just tired. Propping her forehead with her hand, she forced herself to continue with her studies. It was He Duoye, who was lying on her bed playing a handheld game, who first noticed something was wrong.
He Duoye had always run hot, his palms perpetually warm.
But that time, when his hand pressed against her, Lin Mian actually felt a chill.
“You have a fever,” He Duoye said. “Stop studying.”
He lifted her up as if she were a small chick, gripping her under the arms and placing her on the bed. Then, he touched her burning forehead and wrist, frowning as he asked, “Do you have any fever medicine at home?”
Lin Mian felt her headache worsening, and her throat began to feel dry and painfully sore.
“Downstairs, in that wooden cabinet.”
He Duoye said, “Wait.”
He had been visiting Lin Mian’s home frequently lately and was very familiar with the layout, so he immediately went downstairs.
Lin Mian lay there in a daze, and before long, He Duoye returned.
He first gave Lin Mian a cup of warm cold medicine.
“Didn’t you know all the fever-reducing medicine in your house is expired?” He Duoye frowned, his already fierce-looking face appearing even more intimidating, as if he were very angry.
“Stay at home, I’ll go find medicine for you.”
Perhaps being sick truly makes one more vulnerable. Even though He Duoye looked upset at the moment, seeing him about to leave, Lin Mian still grabbed him.
“I don’t want to be alone at home.”
Her home felt so empty and so quiet.
During the early days after she moved here, when she couldn’t sleep at night, she would occasionally have paranoid thoughts—living alone like this, if she accidentally died at home, no one would know until she started to smell.
At that time, she would instantly become the center of everyone’s concern.
But now, truly sick, what she thought was that she didn’t want to die alone and miserable at home.
A home with just one person felt so empty, so quiet, and so dark, as if abandoned by the whole world in a corner.
He Duoye tucked her sweat-dampened hair behind her ear.
“Getting sick makes you clingy,” he said, still wearing that seemingly displeased expression. “Alright then, I’ll reluctantly carry you along.”