Chapter Fourteen (Part 2): Getting One's Way
Lu Qiang was genuinely a little flustered now. The other side hung up without saying a word, and when he called again, no one answered.
As he made his way there, his mind raced. He cursed himself the whole way, wondering what the hell was wrong with him, a grown man getting worked up over a woman like this.
The streets in the dead of night were empty. The fierce wind whipped against his face, and the entire way was unnaturally quiet. The last leaves rustled down from the trees, swirling around his feet together with the dust.
The streetlights were off.
There was not a single person in sight.
Old Li was already fast asleep inside the guardhouse. Lu Qiang did not stop for even half a step and went straight into the residential complex.
He had not kept a key to Lu Yin's home.
Now he was locked outside, and no matter how many times he called for her, she would not open the door.
Lu Qiang patiently called, “Lu Yin.”
No one answered.
He placed his palm against the door, lowered his head, quietly drew in a breath, then called twice more.
This time, there was finally a response.
But it was the elderly neighbor who opened his door, peering at him through the iron grille.
“Who are you looking for at this hour?”
He narrowed his eyes to make out the person standing there.
“Well, isn't this Xiao Lu!”
Lu Qiang's expression darkened. He turned his head to glance at him, then looked back and pounded hard on the door twice.
The old man asked, “You're looking for Xiao Lu?”
Lu Qiang stared at the peephole in the door. A faint light seemed to seep through from inside.
He asked, “Has she gone out?”
The old man paused.
“I didn't notice. Did something happen?”
“Nothing.”
Lu Qiang turned around, intending to walk around to the garden to take a look.
Before he could move, a soft click sounded behind him.
The iron door opened a narrow crack.
Slowly, a head poked out.
Her hair was disheveled, her eyes swollen and red, her cheeks as flushed as cooked shrimp.
She hid behind the door, looking at him pitifully.
Lu Qiang's expression remained displeased. He stared at her for a long time before finally raising his hand and wiping his face.
He deliberately softened his voice.
“Why did you take so long to open the door?”
She licked her lips.
“I thought I was dreaming that someone was knocking.”
“Why didn't you answer when I called?”
“I was asleep.”
Lu Qiang did not believe her.
“Didn't you answer one call? You fell asleep that quickly?”
She frowned.
“I didn't answer any calls!”
Lu Qiang clenched his teeth. He did not bother arguing with her.
He reached out and pulled the door open wider.
Lu Yin instinctively stepped backward. She swayed unsteadily and leaned against the wall of the hallway.
He lowered his head and stepped inside.
His footsteps paused.
He turned his head slightly.
The old man next door was still staring at them with a strange expression.
Lu Qiang said, “Go back to sleep.”
Without waiting for a response, he closed the door himself.
Only the floor lamp in the living room was on. Its dim yellow light shone upward from below, illuminating Lu Yin's haggard face.
Lu Qiang silently looked at her.
The hallway was unusually quiet.
It was not until the sound of the neighbor's door closing came from next door that he finally moved a little and reached up to turn on the light.
Lu Yin narrowed her eyes, lowering her head.
Lu Qiang raised a hand and hooked a finger beneath her chin, teasing her lightly. “Crying again?”
“No.”
There were unexplained marks on her face. Lu Qiang poked at them.
“Then what's this?”
“Probably snot.”
Lu Qiang laughed in exasperation. “Idiot.”
Before his hand had time to move away, his heart suddenly tightened. The unusual heat radiating from her face burned against his fingers.
He frowned. “How high is your fever?”
“Not sure.”
She touched her own face.
“It's just a little hot.”
On the way over, he had thought her cold might have gotten worse. But when he saw her that afternoon, she had seemed more or less fine. He had not expected her fever to become this severe.
She was speaking incoherently and could not remember anything she had done. In fact, she was already burning with fever to the point of being dazed.
He asked her, “Can you walk by yourself?”
Lu Yin nodded and, supporting herself against the wall, made her way back to bed.
The bedside lamp was on in the bedroom. Miscellaneous things were scattered across the floor, while a pile of crumpled tissues lay on the bedside table. Behind them sat a clear glass, with two white pills resting inside a bottle cap beside it.
Lu Qiang had no experience taking care of anyone, much less a woman.
Faced with the scene before him, he stood there blankly for a moment. He glanced at the person on the bed. She lay there quietly and obediently, the blanket covering her nose and mouth, leaving only her large eyes exposed as she blinked up at him.
Lu Qiang scolded softly, “What are you looking at? Close your eyes.”
The person on the bed obediently squeezed her eyes shut as though startled.
He stood in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips, trying to remember how his mother used to take care of him when he was sick as a child.
After a moment, Lu Qiang took off his jacket and tossed it onto the nearby chair before going to the bathroom to wet a towel with warm water.
Lu Yin had been crying and had broken into a sweat. The tip of her nose was wrinkled from wiping it, and wisps of fine hair clung to her forehead.
She looked both comical and pitiful.
Lu Qiang took the towel and wiped her face a couple of times. The person underneath could not help struggling.
“Don't move around.”
Her skin was so delicate. How could it withstand his rough hands?
Lu Yin blocked the towel.
“It hurts a little.”
His hand stopped, but he unconsciously became gentler.
After wiping away the unexplained marks on her face, he asked, “Did you take your fever medicine?”
Lu Yin still had only her eyes showing. She glanced toward the bedside table.
“The water was hot just now. I hadn't gotten around to taking it yet.”
He handed it to her.
“Perfect timing now.”
Lu Yin reached a hand out from beneath the blanket and touched the side of the glass.
“It's a little cold.”
Lu Qiang snorted.
“You're quite particular.”
He took it back and went to the kitchen to mix it with warm water. He tested the temperature against his lips first before handing it to Lu Yin.
After making sure she took the medicine, Lu Qiang rummaged through the clutter on the table and found a thermometer. He shook it under the light, pulled back the blanket, and placed it in her mouth.
Lu Qiang sat down beside the bed, resting one ankle over his other leg. His craving for a cigarette returned. He took one out and held it between his teeth without lighting it.
Looking down, he teased her, “You used to be so obsessed with cleanliness. Were you just putting on an act around me?”
Lu Yin opened her mouth, and the thermometer nearly fell out.
Lu Qiang helped her put it back properly.
“I was just teasing you. Don't talk.”
After sitting quietly for a while, Lu Qiang kept his head lowered, watching her. He used his fingers to brush the damp strands of hair from her forehead back behind her head. There was sweat on her forehead, and he simply wiped it away with his palm.
He took out the thermometer.
Thirty-nine point five degrees.
No wonder she had been talking nonsense earlier.
Lu Qiang began thinking of another way to bring her fever down. He went to the bathroom and brought back a basin of lukewarm water, washed the towel clean again, and pulled back the blanket.
Lu Yin startled.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping you bring your fever down.”
“Don't pull the blanket off.”
She hurriedly grabbed at it with her hands.
Lu Qiang glanced at her.
“I'll wipe you down. If that doesn't work, we'll go to the hospital.”
He ignored her resistance and reached for the buttons of her clothes.
Lu Yin was wearing a two-piece cotton pajama set with a Peter Pan collar, pleated trim around the cuffs, and a row of buttons down the front. It looked somewhat childish.
Lu Yin was not delirious enough from the fever to lose her senses. She grabbed the hem of her shirt.
“I'm sick. Are you trying to take advantage of me?”
He slapped her hand away and said disdainfully, “Even if I had some weird tastes, I wouldn't go so far as to mess with a sick person and have her pass out halfway through. Would I be saving you or not?”
Lu Yin was left speechless, unable to find anything to throw back at him.
She was already weak and had no way of stopping his brute strength. Seeing that he was almost to the collar, she hurriedly wrapped both arms around her chest.
Lu Qiang tucked the unlit cigarette behind his ear and glanced at her.
She pleaded, “There's no need. I... I'm not wearing anything underneath.”
“It's not up to you.”
Lu Qiang pulled off her clothes and tossed them aside. Lu Yin's entire face turned bright red. Her body was snow-white, and even with her arms covering herself, they could not conceal her completely. The pressure against her chest only distorted her breasts, making it no better than leaving them completely exposed.
Lu Qiang let her cover herself and focused single-mindedly on wiping her down with the towel.
But, after all, a man's instinct to appreciate beauty was difficult to suppress. He lasted only a few seconds before those two soft mounds seemed like magnets, repeatedly drawing his eyes toward them. He felt a slight tightness in his lower abdomen, and his fingers tingled faintly.
Lu Qiang swallowed, gritted his teeth, and turned her over so that she was facing down, her back exposed to the sky.
Her back was equally snow-white. A straight, deep hollow ran along her spine, looking both delicate and alluring. Her slender waist dipped sharply inward before flowing into the graceful curve of her round, lifted hips, rising and falling in alternating peaks and valleys.
Lu Qiang wiped her back.
The whole process was unbearably difficult, his mind conjuring up the beauty hidden beneath her pajama pants.
After wiping her several times, he tossed the towel into the basin. His hand came to rest over that piece of fabric, and no matter how he looked at it, he found it irritatingly obstructive.
But before he could do anything, he felt her body shudder twice.
Lu Yin buried her head in the blanket and sobbed.
“You bastard!”
Lu Qiang: “…”
He drew a breath, turned her back over, and found that her hands were still protecting her chest. Her face was already covered in tears. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her lips turned downward, making her look as miserable as possible.
He pulled the blanket over her and threw it over Lu Yin without much patience. After staring coldly at her for a moment, he lowered himself, bracing his arms on either side of her.
Lu Yin complained tearfully, “Why do you always bully me?”
His voice softened.
“How have I bullied you?”
“Right now.”
She pouted.
“And before, too.”
Lu Qiang leaned closer and, not particularly gently, wiped away her tears with his fingers. He said nothing.
Her words came out slurred.
“Didn't you stop keeping me company because you didn't want to play with me anymore? Wasn't I an ungrateful bastard? Didn't you say you didn't even know my name, that you didn't even know my phone number?”
Her words came out broken and disjointed.
By now, she remembered everything. She did not even care about the snot anymore, simply sniffing it back in. Her mouth was twisted into a pout, all her grievances written across her face as she cried like a child.
Lu Qiang found it amusing.
“Not so confused anymore? You've started settling old scores with me.”
Hearing this, Lu Yin became even more upset. There was almost a sense of throwing caution to the wind now. Being ladylike, virtuous, gentle, considerate, none of it had anything to do with her anymore.
A muffled “boo-hoo” escaped through her nose.
The corners of Lu Qiang's lips slowly flattened. He could no longer smile.
He lowered his head and kissed her cheek, then sighed.
“You really know exactly what works on me.”
After coaxing and threatening her by turns, Lu Qiang finally managed to stop her tears. He pulled out a clean tissue and held it against her nose.
His fingers tightened.
“Blow it out.”
Lu Yin deliberately went against him and refused to cooperate, sucking it sharply back in instead.
Lu Qiang grimaced and cursed.
“That's fucking disgusting.”
He did not waste the tissue. He simply wiped her face with it and tossed it onto the table beside them.
Her temperature had dropped somewhat from before, so he wiped her body down again. This time, she cooperated, pressing her lips together without making a sound.
Afterward, he wrapped her up into a huge silkworm cocoon.
Lu Qiang said, “Everything I said was just angry talk.”
Lu Yin lowered her eyes.
“Wasn't it you who wanted to break up?”
Lu Yin lifted her eyelids slightly and sniffled.
“You said such horrible things.”
He propped himself partly up on one arm and lay on his side.
“What did I say?”
“You said he and I were a pair of cheating bastards.”
Lu Qiang froze.
“Did I say that?”
Lu Yin glared at him, her eyes swollen and bloodshot.
Lu Qiang patted the “silkworm cocoon” and stopped teasing her. He conceded, “Fine, I'll admit I was wrong. I'm sorry.”
After a pause, he added, “We're the real pair of cheating bastards. Who the hell does he think he is? He's only fit to be the dog. How about that?”
“You…”
“All right, know when you've got a good thing going,” Lu Qiang said sternly. “You've made your point. Go to sleep. If you don't close your eyes right now, I'm going to mess with you!”
He turned back and switched off the bedside lamp.
He did not bother pulling up the blanket and simply gathered the “silkworm cocoon” into his arms.
The room was pitch-black.
Lu Yin lay there with her eyes wide open.
She did not know how much time had passed before exhaustion finally overcame her, and amid her lingering indignation, she gradually fell asleep.
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