CTS 48

The man kept his word. He quickly arranged for the best hospital and the top specialists. Shen Mo quit his supermarket job and began making frequent trips to the hospital again. After the specialist consultation, the conclusion was that his hand would need another surgery.

Shen Mo wasn’t particularly afraid. With how advanced medicine was nowadays, a minor surgery like this was nothing to worry about.

In fact, it was Zhou Yang who seemed more nervous than him.

Of course, he didn’t show it directly. His face remained calm and indifferent as always. But the night before the surgery, he walked back and forth beside Shen Mo’s hospital bed several times.

Shen Mo was getting dizzy from watching him. He reached out to hold his hand and found the muscles in his palm pulled tight. And still, Zhou Yang tried to comfort him. “Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Shen Mo said with a chuckle. “It’s just a small surgery. If it goes well, that’s great. If it fails, it’s not the end of the world.”

The man gave Shen Mo’s hand a gentle squeeze, then sat down by the bed and looked at him. “Sometimes I really don’t understand you.”

“Hm?”

“You’ve got a soft temper like anyone could push you around, but when you get stubborn, you’re unshakable.”

Shen Mo pretended to be offended. “Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?”

The man actually smiled, rare as it was, and leaned in a little closer. “Take a guess.”

His voice was deep and pleasant to begin with, but now it was so close it felt like it brushed against Shen Mo’s ear. Shen Mo felt a tingle in his chest and could only curse the fact that he had surgery tomorrow. Even if he wanted to get up to no good, now was not the time.

Shen Mo held onto his hand and noticed his muscles were still a bit stiff. He spoke softly. “No need to be so tense. By this time tomorrow, it’ll all be over.”

“I’m fine. I just don’t like hospitals much. My mother…”

“What about her?”

The man looked away and didn’t continue. He only said, “Let’s talk about that another time. You need to get some rest tonight.”

“Alright.”

Shen Mo felt relaxed, and he slept well that night.

The surgery the next day went very well.

But it was only the first step in the treatment. To make things easier during recovery, the man brought up moving out of the rental apartment again. But Shen Mo was unusually firm on this matter. No matter what, he refused to compromise. The man didn’t push him any further.

Shen Mo had to go to the hospital regularly for rehabilitation, and every day he had a pile of medicine to take. The traditional herbal medicine was especially hard to swallow with its strange, bitter taste. If that man hadn’t been there to stay by his side, Shen Mo wasn’t sure he could have endured it.

The weather was gradually turning colder. The thin blanket on the sofa had already been replaced with a thicker one.

Shen Mo had a constitution that was sensitive to the cold. His hands always got icy during winter. The man knew this, so every day after dinner, he would take out medicinal wine and massage Shen Mo’s hands. He started from the fingertips, pressing each finger one by one. It was a time-consuming task, yet the man never seemed the least bit annoyed by it.

Sometimes Shen Mo wondered, was Zhou Yang always like this?

He appeared cold and hard, like he was made of iron or stone. Only after breaking through that outer shell could one see how gentle he truly was inside.

But whenever Shen Mo tried to recall the old Zhou Yang, the memories remained vague. It didn’t matter though. Zhou Yang was by his side now. Ahat was the point of digging through the past?

Shen Mo chuckled at his own thoughts. Watching the man focused on massaging his fingers, he couldn’t help but call out, “Zhou Yang.”

The man didn’t respond.

He often did this. Shen Mo was used to it. So he continued, “Do you think my right hand can really heal?”

“Of course,” the man said without lifting his head. “As long as you keep at it, there will always be results.”

Shen Mo smiled.

That man always said Shen Mo was stubborn, but he was just the same.

“Zhou Yang,” Shen Mo said softly, lowering his gaze to the man’s handsome side profile, “when my right hand recovers and I can start painting again, the first one I draw will be you. Is that okay?”

The man’s movements paused for a second, then he continued, pressing Shen Mo’s fingers one by one and finally cupping them in his palm, rubbing them gently.

Shen Mo felt the warmth reach all the way to his fingertips.

The man kept his eyes lowered, never once looking up at him, his attention fixed completely on Shen Mo’s hands. After a while, he finally replied.

“Alright.”

Shen Mo’s hands were warm, and that warmth made him a little sleepy. Leaning against the sofa, he drifted off. He didn’t fall into a deep sleep. His mind was still hazy, vaguely aware that the man had taken a blanket and covered him with it, then paced around the room twice.

It was something he did when he was nervous.

Just as Shen Mo was wondering why, he felt the man bend down. His breath drew closer, and then Shen Mo felt a warm pair of lips lightly brush past the side of his hair.