Chapter 15

Shen Nan’s chest was really hard — it practically knocked all the sense out of her.

The two of them were still in that position on the bed, one on top of the other. She was clearly the one who wasn’t injured, but she just couldn’t move. With just one hand, Shen Nan had her small frame pinned down completely, no escape.

Shen Nan felt the same. Only now did he really notice how fragile Zhou Zuizui’s body actually was — it felt like if he used just a little more strength, he could snap her slim waist in half. He lowered his eyes, staring at the restless woman lying in his arms.

“Who’s jealous?” Zhou Zuizui blanked for a second, then snapped back. She looked at Shen Nan coldly: “Let me go.”

Shen Nan raised one eyebrow slightly, his lips curving into a half-smile, half-not, like he wasn’t surprised at all that she would deny it:

“Wait until I finish talking.”

Zhou Zuizui choked a little, reached out trying to push his arm away:

“I can listen even if you let me go.”

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Fbld Lyd rywple, vbld pyke:

“Rq R zlv usw ts, usw osd’v clbyhl.”

Rq bl eked’v wdelapvyde bkp sod okql’p rlapsdyzkvu cu dso, rascyczu ds sdl eke. Fbl bye dlhla clld psxlsdl obs zkjle clkdt nsdvaszzle. Rq bl zlv bla wr aktbv dso kd vbkp xsse, Hbsw Hwkgwk oswze elqkdkvlzu qkde oyup vs vsavwal bkx zyvla.

Hbsw Hwkgwk vssj y ellr calyvb. Fllkdt pbl alyzzu nswzed’v xshl bkx, pbl tyhl wr pvawttzkdt.

“Wkdl, pyu kv. Ebyv es usw oydv vs pyu.”

Fbl zsolale bla lulzkep, bkekdt bla lxsvksdp.

Fbld Lyd pvyale yv bla okvb cwadkdt lulp qsa y qlo plnsdep clqsal prlyjkdt:

“Jynj yv vbl bsprkvyz, R eked’v qkdkpb obyv R oyp pyukdt.”

“In our line of work, small injuries like this happen pretty often. You know that.” He tried to keep his tone calm and soothing, with a bit of comfort in it: “The reason I didn’t tell you is because I didn’t think it was a big deal. As for my parents, I didn’t call them either — someone at the hospital who knows us just contacted them directly.”

There was no way he would deliberately notify his mom and dad that he got hurt. That just wasn’t Shen Nan’s style.

Zhou Zuizui pressed her lips together and stayed silent.

She could more or less guess that Shen Nan hadn’t been the one to call his parents himself, but she still felt uncomfortable. Every time she thought about the shocked and unbelievable look on Shen’s mom’s face back then, she felt a little sorry toward them.

Shen Nan’s parents had always had some opinions about their marriage — it wasn’t like they had none. But they were reasonable people. Even though they had reservations, they calmly accepted her as their daughter-in-law and never once tried to control or restrict anything Zhou Zuizui wanted to do. She didn’t know what kind of promises Shen Nan had made to his parents, or what methods he used to convince the whole family and relatives, but no matter what… thinking about everything that had happened in these two years just made her feel guilty.

Shen Nan lowered his head, looking at the quiet woman lying peacefully in his arms. He reached out, gently pinched her ear, and said:

“From now on I’ll remember — I’ll call you.”

“Oh.” She sounded cold: “You don’t have to.”

Shen Nan let out a soft laugh. “Not call you, so you can make me drink three more days of that white porridge?”

That white porridge really… had zero flavor at all. At first it was at least the kind bought from outside, still kinda thick and sticky. But the last three days’ worth? That had to be Zhou Zuizui’s own cooking — watered down to the extreme. Basically just water.

Zhou Zuizui: “…”

She couldn’t hold back anymore. She reached out and slapped his shoulder in embarrassment and anger:

“Shut up!”

Shen Nan laughed quietly, his eyes softening as he looked at her:

“Your cooking skills really haven’t improved one bit.”

“…You’re lucky I even fed you. And you’re still complaining.”

She ate takeout every single day herself.

Shen Nan paused, then looked at the woman who could finally bicker with him again, and suddenly asked:

“Still angry?”

“…No.”

It was true — the anger was gone. For this man to explain himself to her like this, even if Zhou Zuizui had the biggest temper in the world, it would’ve melted away. Actually… watching Shen Nan silently finish those three days of her tasteless white porridge, most of her anger had already disappeared long ago.

Women are like that — tempers flare up fast, but they cool down fast too. Sometimes she didn’t even understand herself, why she got so petty and dramatic. But that kind of pettiness… it was just hard to control.

The two of them stayed quiet for a while. Shen Nan looked down at her for a long moment, then suddenly asked:

“So… still jealous?”

“…”

“Who’s jealous?” The second that topic came up, Zhou Zuizui reacted like a little leopard, immediately snapping back. Taking advantage of Shen Nan not paying attention, she climbed off him, flipped over, got out of bed, and stood beside it looking down at him. Word by word she said:

“I’m not jealous.”

After saying that, without waiting for Shen Nan to react, Zhou Zuizui threw down one last sentence and ran off.

“Captain Shen, you can just sleep like this tonight.”

Shen Nan: “…”

He watched her leave with a helpless mix of laughter and frustration, then rubbed between his eyebrows, feeling a headache coming on.

Still as stubborn as ever.

Late at night, after Zhou Zuizui finished her shower, it was already really late.

She lay on the bed, not really able to fall asleep at all. She had already finished all her sleeping pills, but there was still zero sign of sleepiness.

After thinking about it, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She pulled out her phone, planning to scroll through Moments or something. She didn’t have many friends — only a handful of people on WeChat. The moment she opened Moments, Zhou Zuizui saw the post from Xia Wen: a photo from a bar. Xia Wen was sitting in a corner, colorful lights shining on her, looking especially beautiful and artistic.

Zhou Zuizui curved her lips into a smile and left a comment below:

Beautiful, coming to my bed tonight?

Less than a minute after she posted, Xia Wen messaged her.

Xia Wen: Why aren’t you asleep yet?

Zuizui: Can’t sleep, just got home.

Xia Wen: Weren’t you at the hospital? You came home alone? Why don’t you come join us for the second half?

Zuizui: Don’t you have work?

Xia Wen: Tomorrow’s the weekend, sis.

Zuizui: …Oh right, I forgot. Shen Nan discharged himself, so we came back.

The next second, Xia Wen called her directly: “What’s going on? How did he discharge so soon?”

Zhou Zuizui laughed softly, tilted her head back to look at the ceiling, and pouted her lips: “No idea.”

Actually, she didn’t understand why Shen Nan had discharged so randomly either. When she secretly asked the doctor earlier, he said he should stay at least two more days. The wound was quite deep, and the location was tricky — one wrong move and that spot could bleed heavily. For soldiers, a knife wound like this wasn’t usually a big deal, but it really depended on exactly where it hit.

There had been cases of police officers dying from massive bleeding after a stab in the waist area. So that spot — everyone took it extremely seriously.

Xia Wen guessed: “Did something happen between you two?”

Zhou Zuizui: “No.”

“Really nothing?”

“Really nothing.”

They chatted randomly for a bit. Xia Wen laughed: “Alright then, you handle it yourself.”

“Mm.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment, then Xia Wen added: “If you really can’t sleep, just call me and come out.”

Zhou Zuizui smiled: “I’ll sleep eventually. You head home early.”

“Okay.”

After hanging up, Zhou Zuizui thought for a bit, then threw off the blanket, got up, slipped on her slippers, and tiptoed quietly to the next room. She had just left Shen Nan lying there on the bed earlier — no idea how he was doing now.

She pushed open the door and went in. The curtains in the room weren’t fully closed, so a soft, pale moonlight filtered in. Using that moonlight, she looked at the tough, hard-edged man lying on the bed.

Sleeping Shen Nan looked so much softer around the face. He didn’t have that sharp, strict look he usually wore during the day. But even asleep, this guy still had his brows tightly knitted together.

Zhou Zuizui lowered her head, paused when she saw how straight and proper he was sleeping, then bent down to gently pull the blanket up and cover him properly.

Her movements were super light. The second she finished tucking the blanket around him, her hand got grabbed.

Zhou Zuizui froze. Her pupils shrank. She looked at him in total shock.

“Insomnia?” Shen Nan didn’t even ask why she was suddenly here.

Zhou Zuizui blinked in a daze, then nodded honestly:

“Mm.”

“How did you wake up?”

Shen Nan glanced at her:

“Forget what I do for a living?”

His alertness was sky-high anyway, even at home. But Zhou Zuizui had really been moving quietly — if he hadn’t been half-awake thinking about something, he probably wouldn’t have stopped her.

Zhou Zuizui: “…”

Yeah, she was being dumb.

The two of them looked at each other silently under the moonlight. Then Shen Nan suddenly said:

“Sleep here.”

“…………”

Zhou Zuizui stared at him quietly for a few seconds, then very honestly lifted the blanket and slipped right in.

She really was tired. When it came to sleep, there wasn’t much to feel shy about. Once she left the familiar place that made her feel safe, she just couldn’t fall asleep or sleep well.

Weirdly enough, sleeping next to Shen Nan made her fall asleep super fast.

After lying down, neither of them said anything. They just kept a small distance between them, closed their eyes quietly, and rested.

A full, peaceful night’s sleep.

For the next couple of days, they spent almost every night like that.

Except for the occasional funny/awkward mishaps when changing Shen Nan’s bandages — everything else was fine.

A few days later, Shen Nan went back to the hospital for a check-up. The wound on his waist was pretty much healed. They weren’t the type to be overly dramatic about it — as long as it was mostly good, that was enough.

That same day, right after the check-up finished, Shen Nan got a call from his mom.

“A-Nan, how’s the injury?”

Shen Nan answered calmly and steadily:

“Mom, it’s all good now.”

Shen’s mom paused, glanced at Shen’s dad who was signaling at her from the side, then smiled helplessly:

“You’re still on leave, right?”

“Mm.” Shen Nan laughed softly: “Mom, just say whatever it is.”

Shen’s mom opened her mouth, then said in a low voice:

“Is Zuizui still at home? You two came back but haven’t come home for a meal?” She went on: “What Mom means is… why don’t you both come home tonight for dinner? How about it?”

Shen Nan thought for a moment, then said seriously:

“I’ll ask her.”

“Okay.” Shen’s mom agreed: “If you don’t have time, it’s fine to come another day.”

Shen Nan curved his lips, giving a helpless little laugh.

After hanging up, Shen Nan went to the bathroom area to find her.

…..

Zhou Zuizui came to the hospital together with Shen Nan, but right now she was basically just the driver — no other role. She stayed with him while he saw the doctor for a bit, then started wandering around on her own. Eventually she ended up in the bathroom.

She had only been inside for a short while when she heard two little nurses talking outside.

This was the fifth floor — not many medical staff worked on this level since different departments were spread out.

Listening to the voices outside, Zhou Zuizui suddenly felt they sounded kinda familiar.

“Qianqian, Captain Shen came back for his follow-up check-up. Were you the one who helped him just now?”

The one called Qianqian answered gently: “Yeah, his recovery is really good. He’s basically almost fully healed now.”

The other person kept asking: “But a few days ago didn’t he have a big bleed and you had to rush over to re-bandage him?”

Hearing that, Zhou Zuizui finally realized why the voice felt familiar.

It was that little nurse from that day.

“Mm, yeah.”

“What happened? How did it suddenly bleed so much?” The other one sounded super gossipy, eyes sparkling with excitement as she stared at her: “I heard there was a woman involved that day?”

Qianqian went quiet for a second, pursed her lips while touching up her makeup: “There was, but I don’t think there’s anything between them. When I went to change his dressing, I didn’t sense any vibe at all.”

“Ah, so you still have a chance then?” The other girl grinned sneakily: “They say Captain Shen’s body is especially good… Did you have any other thoughts while you were putting on his medicine?”

No one answered from the side.

The other one kept chattering on: “I really want to date a soldier sometime. Just to test out the stamina… it must feel super amazing…”

Actually, when women get together, they do talk about all kinds of messy stuff like this. Zhou Zuizui herself would chat about it with Xia Wen too — but most of the time, the guys they talked about weren’t people with actual relationships or status. And they definitely wouldn’t do it in public. Usually it was about characters from TV dramas or movies.

But right now these two were talking about her own husband — and Zhou Zuizui couldn’t just let that slide.

She pushed open the bathroom door and walked straight out, giving the two of them a cold look.

The two nurses froze. They hadn’t expected anyone else to be inside. For a second, the awkwardness was thick enough to cut.

When they came in, they hadn’t heard any sound… This bathroom only had three stalls, so that’s why they had been so shamelessly open.

Zhou Zuizui stood to the side, turned on the faucet, and let the water rush over her hands. She steadied her breathing, then looked at the two who were about to slip away:

“Wait.”

Their steps halted. They looked at her a little embarrassed: “Sorry…”

The one called Qianqian glanced at Zhou Zuizui, awkward: “We weren’t just—”

Before she could finish, Zhou Zuizui cut her off.

She pulled out a paper towel, dried her hands, then stared at the two of them with heavy eyes. She let out a cold laugh:

“I don’t care if you talk about other men, but at least have some professional ethics for whatever job you do.”

She paused, narrowed her eyes at them, her aura pressing down hard:

“And one more thing I forgot to remind you two — the man you were just talking about…”

She raised one eyebrow, warning them word by word:

“…is my man.”

Swish — both their faces instantly went pale.

After saying that, Zhou Zuizui turned sideways and walked out without changing her expression.

The moment she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw the man standing not far away, looking at her with a half-smile, half-not expression.

“…………”