Back Then, I Adored You

Wu Hao’s fingers subconsciously tightened around the glass bowl that he’d placed the grapes in. He had yet to open his mouth to lie and deceive her, but he already was slightly afraid to meet her eyes. He subconsciously turned his head away and averted her expectant gaze.

He did not want to agree but neither did he want to deny. He felt as if he was caught in an extremely difficult dilemma that he could not resolve regardless of how hard he struggled. It was only when he felt the vague, painful sensation from the knife wound on his shoulder that he frowned slightly, as if he suddenly remembered something. After that, he loosened his grip on the glass bowl slightly, and it slipped through his palms and crashed to the ground, spilling the grapes out all over the floor.

“Let me clean up first…” Wu Hao used the brief interlude to dodge Xu Wennuan’s question, and he quickly turned and entered the bathroom. After he closed the door, instead of getting a broom he grimaced as his shoulder shook uncontrollably. His wound, which had finally stopped bleeding, had torn open again and his shirt was now drenched in blood over the wound. He then grabbed the broom and walked back into the room.

Wu Hao intentionally used his injured arm to sweep the grapes on the floor. After he had gathered them all together, he faced his back toward Xu Wennuan when he bent down to throw the grapes into the trash; halfway through, though, he groaned softly.

Xu Wennuan heard his exertion and turned over to look at him. Catching sight of the bloody patch of red on Wu Hao’s shirt, her eyes widened, and she instantly sprang up straight before asking, “Are you injured?”

When Wu Hao heard her query, he immediately hid his shoulder from her and shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

How could it be nothing when it’s bleeding like that?

Xu Wennuan frowned hard and said, “Get a doctor to check on your wound.” Her voice was notably less cold as compared to the tone of voice that she had used when she had just woken up and asked him if he was the one who had saved her.

“I’ll go after I’ve cleaned up so that no one will slip on this mess,” said Wu Hao, and he continued cleaning. He knew that after Xu Wennuan had seen the blood on his shirt all her attention would be on him. Thus, from time to time, he slowed down his motions to appear as if he was more severely injured that he actually was.

As he expected, after 30 seconds of silence, he heard a shuffling sound from the hospital bed behind him. Xu Wennuan was moving. After a few more seconds, she spoke, but not to him. She was talking into the hospital call speaker. “Could a nurse come to room 68 please?”

After turning off the speaker, Xu Wennuan sneaked a glance at Wu Hao squatting on the floor, before she said, “Get up. I’ll clean it up later.” Without responding, Wu Hao picked up the last two grapes from the floor before tossing them into the trash.

Shortly after Xu Wennuan got up, the nurse, whom Xu Wennuan had called for, entered the room. “Ms. Xu, are you feeling unwell?”

“It’s not me,” Xu Wennuan said as she pointed her chin at Wu Hao. After a pause, she said, “It’s him.”

The nurse looked at Wu Hao and, before she could ask him where he felt unwell, she spotted the blood on his shoulder. She had been present when Wu Hao had brought Xu Wennuan to the hospital earlier, and she was aware of the wound on his shoulder, so she immediately said, “Mr. Wu, your shoulder wound has ripped open again!”