In the hospital.
Inside an ordinary single - person ward.
Liu Xuejiao was sitting on the bed, spouting some professional jargon. Xing Xing was on the side, on the verge of dozing off. Qin Chengyao, on the other hand, was sitting beside the bed, holding Liu Xuejiao's computer in his hands.
She stared at Qin Chengyao with almost an obsessed look as his long, well - defined fingers danced on her keyboard, typing out exactly what she had just said at her pace.
After hitting the last key, Qin Chengyao placed the computer in front of Liu Xuejiao without pressing on her. He held it up for her to see.
"Take a look. If there's anything wrong, and if it's okay, I'll send out the lawyer's letter."
Liu Xuejiao felt a warm current in her heart at his considerate gesture and got distracted for a moment.
Seeing that she didn't say a word for a long time and just stared at his hands, Qin Chengyao's face darkened a bit. "Lawyer Liu? Are you listening?"
"Ah!" Liu Xuejiao snapped back to reality and quickly looked at the computer seriously. "Sorry, I got distracted. I'll check it now. Don't worry."
After reading through the whole text, she was even more surprised to find not a single typo.
"These are all professional legal terms. I didn't expect you to type them all out correctly without a single mistake!"
Qin Chengyao expressionlessly took back the computer to make the final revisions. "It's because it's your computer. Your computer has already memorized these terms, so when I type, it just pops up naturally."
"O - okay..." Liu Xuejiao gave an awkward smile. Then she looked at Xing Xing beside her and couldn't help asking, "But why has this little classmate been here all the time? Don't you need to prepare for the competition?"
"We've decided to follow what Ji Siyue said and not cancel the competition results. The next opponent is very strong. We can't waste too much energy in advance. After sending out the lawyer's letter, proving ourselves with a stronger performance in the next match is more effective than winning many rounds."
Suddenly, Liu Xuejiao's face changed.
Why? Weren't they supposed to follow her method just yesterday? Why did they suddenly adopt Ji Siyue's method?
"This... Miss Ji is not a professional. The methods she comes up with might be just out of impulse. The one I came up with is the most effective..."
"Miss Liu!" Qin Chengyao called out in a moderate tone. Liu Xuejiao immediately shut up and stared at him infatuatedly, waiting for his next words.
When he called her Miss Liu, it sounded much nicer than Lawyer Liu!
Qin Chengyao closed the computer and looked at Xing Xing. "Do you know why I always have Xing Xing present?"
"Why?"
"Because you're a woman and I'm a man. Apart from our cooperative relationship, there shouldn't be anything else between us. It wouldn't be good if others, especially my girlfriend, got the wrong idea."
As he said these words, the expression on her face gradually faded into dead silence and finally shattered bit by bit.
"Junior..."
"Alright, Lawyer Liu. If there's nothing else, you should rest well. I'll inform you of the follow - up of the lawyer's letter. This commission ends here. Xing Xing, let's go."
"Don't leave." Liu Xuejiao suddenly closed her eyes and said calmly. Xing Xing, who had just stood up, froze at her words.
When she opened her eyes again, there was no trace of the shyness and coquetry from before.
She looked up at Qin Chengyao and smiled. "I got injured in your base. You should be responsible. If not, ask your girlfriend to accompany me. Both of you are the leaders of the team. One of you should stay with me."
Qin Chengyao stopped, seemingly a bit confused about what she meant. But he could guess that her next request wouldn't be something easy to deal with.
"What do you want? Say it. Compensation?" Qin Chengyao said with a cold smile.
"If you can accompany me until I recover, I can waive the additional compensation for mental distress."
"I'd rather pay you the compensation." Qin Chengyao said as he was about to take out his phone, but when he pressed the button, the screen was black.
Damn it, it's out of battery.
"Of course, if you don't agree, the compensation for mental distress is still necessary. Either you or Ji Siyue must come." By now, Liu Xuejiao had completely shed all her pretenses. She looked at Qin Chengyao with a charming smile, which made Qin Chengyao feel disgusted.
"I know you definitely don't want your girlfriend to suffer. My request isn't excessive. I'll probably recover in about a month. You just need to come and accompany me for an hour or two every day."
"Are you crazy?" Xing Xing murmured in a low voice. "We're very busy. Our rest time is already fully occupied, and now we have to spare two more hours..."
He didn't dare to continue because he felt the atmosphere in the room was extremely tense, as if World War III was about to break out at any moment!
Qin Chengyao stared at her for a long time and then gritted his teeth and said slowly, "Lawyer Liu, a month won't change anything. I won't change my heart."
"How do you know if you don't try? I was thinking that if I had put aside my pride and made a move earlier, it would be me standing by your side and solving these problems for you now..." Liu Xuejiao laughed miserably, as if she were the victim.
"Xing Xing, let's go!" Qin Chengyao didn't want to talk anymore. After calling out, he turned around and left.
Just before Xing Xing closed the door, Liu Xuejiao said another sentence in the room.
"If you don't come, I'll sue you! I don't think you want any more trouble right now!"
After leaving the ward, Qin Chengyao walked very fast, as if completely consumed by anger.
Xing Xing didn't dare to say a word and just followed him with small steps.
As they were walking...
"Ouch!"
Xing Xing covered his nose and took a step back, looking at Qin Chengyao's back in confusion as he suddenly stopped.
"Captain, did you remember that there's something else you haven't done?"
Qin Chengyao slowly turned around and looked at him. "Don't tell Siyue about today's matter, and don't tell anyone else either."
"... You're really going to accompany her for a month! If you don't tell Sister Siyue, she'll definitely be jealous!"
"Stop talking nonsense. Take my phone back to the base to charge it and then bring it to the hospital. I'll go find a Wi - Fi connection to send out the lawyer's letter."
"Okay!"
...
Ji Siyue and Zhu Zhiyao were walking side by side on campus, attracting a lot of attention.
There were looks of schadenfreude, confusion, and hatred, but only a few looks of pity and sympathy.
People more or less knew about what had happened in the past two days. Besides, Ji Siyue was a well - known figure on campus, so she was already used to it.