"I think you'd better stop taking in hospital patients from now on," Leng Chuanjin said to Xia Sanghuan as soon as she got in the car.
"Why?"
"Aren't you tired?" the man countered.
He reached out and touched the girl's face, his thumb constantly rubbing against the dark circles under her eyes. There was a look of deep concern in his eyes.
"You're either at the hospital or the research lab every day. When will you ever take care of yourself?"
The girl felt a tickling sensation from his touch and dodged backward. She then said to him with a smile, "Don't you care about me?"
"Are the patients from the association really that important?"
"Of course."
The man frowned deeply.
"Do you really have to treat them?"
Sensing something strange in his tone, she turned to look at his profile.
"Yes, I do."
Putting away her previous coaxing tone, she answered seriously.
"So, is this what it means to have the benevolence of a doctor?"
After parking the car, he opened the door for her and looked down at her outside the car.
"I can't do it."
"I can't just sit back and watch you work so hard every day."
"I'm going to talk to the president of that association."
The man's attitude was unexpectedly firm this time.
"No way."
Xia Sanghuan rarely refused to give in to him this time.
Leng Chuanjin stared at her silently. After a brief stand - off, he was the first to back down.
"Okay."
The man put away his serious expression and sighed helplessly.
"I won't go."
Looking at the hand he held out to her, the girl readily took it.
The two gave each other an out, thus avoiding an argument. But the atmosphere between them was different from usual.
At the dinner table, Leng Wanqing kept giving her elder brother meaningful looks, but Leng Chuanjin pretended not to notice and just kept piling food onto his own bowl. He stopped only when the bowl was almost overflowing.
Xia Sanghuan wasn't doing much better. She seemed to have reverted to the way she was when she first came to the Leng family, just silently eating with her head down.
Leng Wanqing and Uncle Wang exchanged a helpless look.
After dinner, the girl locked herself in her room.
"Brother, why did you guys quarrel again?"
"It's okay."
Leng Chuanjin replied stiffly.
"Kids should stay out of adults' business. Go study."
Because she had promised her elder brother last year and had become much more mature, Leng Wanqing had started attending a high - school in the country not long after the New Year.
She had wanted to come up with some ideas for her elder brother to coax his wife. But since her elder brother didn't take her advice, she got angry and decided not to interfere.
In fact, no one knew better than Leng Chuanjin how to coax Xia Sanghuan.
The man sighed and began to regret the way he had behaved when he picked up the girl from school today.
He was a man of few words and decisive actions, but when it came to Xia Sanghuan, he was always willing to indulge her. Maybe because he had been dealing with a heavy workload today, he hadn't been able to control his temper.
...
They were exactly the same.
Looking at the two sets of experimental procedures laid out in front of her, Xia Sanghuan couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
These two parts were exactly the same. But what were they developing these drugs for?
The girl bit her lower lip impatiently. She had forgotten to ask at that time.
So should she replicate the experiment herself?
She remembered the discarded experimental cabinets in the laboratory. The components on those cabinets might be related to this experiment.
If she were to go find those two people again, not only was it uncertain whether they would cooperate as they did the first time, but it would also be difficult to get past Leng Chuanjin.
After the first interrogation, she had managed to deflect the matter by saying she wanted to ask them what they had done with the stolen Wuguling Treasure. But what about the second time?
She wasn't sure if Leng Chuanjin had any informants in the police station.
She massaged her aching temples, carefully stacked the two sets of experimental procedures together, and then placed them at the bottom of her backpack.
She let out a sigh and left the room before the school bell rang.
...
"Come in."
Hearing the knock on the door, the girl's thoughts were pulled away from the documents in front of her.
She stuffed the documents into the drawer in a hurry and locked it out of habit.
As soon as her voice fell, Leng Chuanjin walked in with the glass of milk that he forced her to drink every night.
"Aren't you going to sleep yet?"
"You came to find me because you were sure I wasn't asleep, right?"
The girl stood up and turned off the desk lamp. After so much time together, the two were well - aware of each other's daily routines.
"I..."
Before the man could finish his sentence, she threw herself into his arms.
"You invited me this time."
Leng Chuanjin's eyes darkened. He wrapped his free arm around the girl's waist.
...
"Tell me," the man said softly as he gently patted the girl's back.
"Do you think I should call Yun Qi here?"
Hearing this, Xia Sanghuan's body stiffened imperceptibly.
"No."
She buried her face in his chest like a child throwing a tantrum, and her voice sounded muffled.
"Can you stop always bringing up Yun Qi?"
She looked up. The moonlight shone into her eyes, giving them a watery look as if she had just cried.
Leng Chuanjin's heart softened instantly.
"Okay, I won't mention her again."
He lowered his head and kissed the girl's lips.
"Can I ask why? Why did you suddenly mention calling Yun Qi?"
To be honest, every time Leng Chuanjin mentioned Yun Qi, she would feel a bit sad. Although she was Yun Qi, to the man, Yun Qi and she were two completely different people.
Was it because he didn't trust her abilities? Did he think she was inferior to Yun Qi?
She had to admit, sadly, that she sometimes envied the legendary version of herself. She had done nothing, yet she was always on Leng Chuanjin's mind.
"Because I thought if I called Yun Qi here, maybe she could help relieve some of your stress."
Hearing this, the girl was stunned. She looked at him in disbelief.
"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
The man found it quite amusing to see her looking at him so eagerly like a puppy.
"I thought..."
"You thought what?"
"Never mind."
The girl's tense face since school had suddenly relaxed, and even the corners of her mouth began to turn up slightly.
She had thought of so many reasons for his actions, but this one never occurred to her.
Seeing her reaction, the man more or less understood what she meant.
"Haven't I said many times?"
He took her hand and gently kissed it on his lips.
"You're the one I love the most."
"No matter what, you're always my top priority."
"So, just accept my love for you with confidence, okay?"