Chapter 40: Staying

Si Qingyu quickly walked back to the clinic, her mind constantly flashing back to the scene of the two of them engaged in a delightful conversation. There was always a trace of unshakable gloom in her heart.

“Phew.” She stopped and exhaled, not understanding what was going on with her. She had lived two lifetimes and had never had this kind of feeling before. Thinking about this, her footsteps slowed down a bit.

By the time she reached the clinic, the sun had already crawled overhead. Zhao Sixi was currently applying medicine to a woman, chatting happily with her as she did so. Hearing the sound, she turned her head, slightly surprised: “Doctor Si, you’re here so early?”

“Mm.”

Si Qingyu walked over and sat down at the tea table, her mood low.

Zhao Sixi wrapped the medicine in layers, handed the packaged medicinal materials to the woman, her voice bright and lively: “Take this back, one package every two days. After you finish drinking it, come back to change the medicine.”

“Thank you, young lady!”

“It’s nothing. Madam, remember to be more careful next time you go up the mountain.”

“Okay, okay, I know. Thank you.” The woman said gratefully to Zhao Sixi, her face kind. She also thanked Si Qingyu, who was sitting inside, before leaving.

Zhao Sixi had a smile on the corner of her mouth as she hummed an off-tune song while cleaning up the medicinal herb residue. She put the residue on a tray, passed by Si Qingyu, and dumped it into the bucket behind Si Qingyu.

Then she turned her head to look at Si Qingyu, who hadn’t said a word since she entered: “Doctor Si, why are you here so early today? I thought you would stay with Lord Luo until after noon before coming.”

Seeing the lively Zhao Sixi, she was a little puzzled: “You’re very happy today?”

“Ah?” Zhao Sixi was a little dazed, not understanding why Doctor Si suddenly asked her this: “I’m quite happy every day.” She scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly: “Before I came to the clinic, my family couldn’t even afford meals, and my mother and I often went hungry. Now I can have enough to eat every day, so I’m very happy every day!”

Zhao Sixi looked at Si Qingyu seriously, her tone sincere: “So, I’m really grateful to Doctor Si!”

Seeing her immature appearance, Si Qingyu couldn’t help but pat her on the top of her head, the corners of her mouth curling up: “This is the result of your own hard work. If you had come in with only the thought of taking the monthly money, I’m afraid I would have stopped keeping you long ago.”

Although letting her come to the clinic to help out was indeed partly out of sympathy, she wasn’t so overflowing with sympathy that she was willing to support a fool who wasn’t even willing to learn in the long run.

“Hehe…” Zhao Sixi blushed slightly from the praise, hanging her head and scratching it while grinning foolishly.

Si Qingyu gently patted her head: “Alright, see if there’s anything that hasn’t been done yet, go attend to it first.”

“Mm!” Zhao Sixi nodded heavily and ran off happily to sort the medicinal herbs that had been dried but not yet cleaned.

Looking at Zhao Sixi squatting on the ground humming a tune, Si Qingyu sighed softly. She touched her chest, and after chatting with Zhao Sixi like this, the depression in her heart dissipated a little. She suddenly thought, with her leaving like this, what were those two… doing now?

Her fingers lightly tapped on the table. They wouldn’t still be together, right?

Sigh, what was she thinking about? Si Qingyu tapped her forehead with her fingers in frustration, stood up, took out the account books that hadn’t been sorted out yesterday, and put them on the desk. She needed something to distract herself a bit. She didn’t even know what she was thinking about now.

……

When she returned to the bamboo house in the afternoon, she saw a figure in pale purple waiting outside her bamboo courtyard gate. Si Qingyu frowned slightly and walked up: “Why are you here?”

Luo Shaoxuan smiled softly: “I’m waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” Si Qingyu took out the door lock key and opened the bamboo gate: “If you have something, you can come directly to the clinic to find me. Why do you have to wait here for me?” With that, she walked in by herself, not paying attention to him.

Luo Shaoxuan followed two steps behind her. Seeing her back, he couldn’t help but walk a little closer. He whispered in her ear: “There are too many people in the clinic. I want it to be just the two of us.”

Her ears itched a little from his sudden closeness. She walked quickly two steps forward to get farther away from him: “Speak, what’s the matter?”

Si Qingyu put the medicinal residue she had brought back from the clinic on the stone table. Seeing that the person behind her hadn’t spoken for a long time, she turned her head in puzzlement and was stunned.

Luo Shaoxuan was now standing only an arm’s length away from her, his phoenix eyes slightly curved, looking at her with a smile full of meaning.

“What are you smiling at?”

“At the restaurant today, how did Ziliang leave in such a hurry? Leaving that Lord Luo so disappointed.”

It was fine if he didn’t mention it, but when he did, the irritation in her heart somehow came up again. She replied somewhat impatiently: “Didn’t I say at that time that there was an urgent matter at the clinic?”

Luo Shaoxuan walked to her side with a pretend pitiful look on his face: “So you just abandoned me there alone?”

“Wasn’t Lord Luo still there?” They seemed to be chatting quite happily, so why did he come to her to complain now?

Luo Shaoxuan lowered his eyes slightly: “She and I are strangers. Whether she is there or not has nothing to do with me.” He gently took her slender hand and placed it on his cheek, rubbing it gently, his eyes passionate and devoted as he looked at her: “I only care about you.”

Always have, always will. So you can only care about me alone.

Si Qingyu only felt her heart beat a little faster, and a hint of blush involuntarily appeared on her face. She coughed lightly to conceal the abnormality in her heart and withdrew her hand: “Don’t speak nonsense.”

She took the medicinal residue on the table to the kitchen, then suddenly turned to Luo Shaoxuan behind her and said lightly: “Stay here for dinner tonight.” With that, she went in.

Luo Shaoxuan was stunned for a moment, then couldn’t help but curl up a sweet smile. He had thought she would still tell him to go back like before.

He obediently sat down at the stone table to wait for her.

But he saw an extremely eye-catching thing on the stone table. His smile stiffened, and for a moment, his face was distorted by crazy jealousy. He gloomily glanced in Si Qingyu’s direction and inconspicuously put the thing on the table into his sleeve.

Si Qingyu only stir-fried one vegetable dish and one meat dish. When she brought them out, she saw Luo Shaoxuan sitting there quietly waiting for her with his hands clasped. When he saw her coming out, he gave her a gentle smile. The afterglow of the setting sun after dusk sprinkled on his face. This scene was like a beautiful painting scroll that made people unconsciously indulge in it.

“What’s wrong?” Luo Shaoxuan tilted his head slightly, looking at the person standing there with the dishes in puzzlement.

Si Qingyu suddenly came back to her senses, couldn’t help but be annoyed that she had been staring at him in a daze. She quickly walked up with the food and placed it on the table, sitting across from him: “I didn’t buy a lot of ingredients, so I only made two dishes. Make do with it.” The key was that she didn’t know he would come.

“As long as it’s made by you, anything is fine.” Luo Shaoxuan propped his chin with one hand, tilting his head slightly, his eyes looking at her like autumn water.

Si Qingyu didn’t look much and put a set of bowls and chopsticks in front of him: “Eat.”

The two ate dinner quietly. Today, Luo Shaoxuan was unusually quiet. By the time they finished eating, it was already dark. Si Qingyu quickly cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks: “Wait a moment, I’ll send you back to town in a bit.”

As she picked up the bowls and chopsticks, Luo Shaoxuan beside her took them from her hands: “Let me.”

Si Qingyu frowned: “Now I’ll send you to town first. I can wash them later when I come back. It’ll be too late later.”

But Luo Shaoxuan ignored her and went straight past her to wash the bowls and chopsticks unhurriedly.

Si Qingyu couldn’t do anything about him and had to wait for him to finish washing.

But she saw him turn around after washing and ask her quite naturally: “Where’s the bath? I want to take a bath.”

Take a bath?

Si Qingyu was about to tell him that she didn’t have any clothes for him to change into here when she saw a woman in black clothes suddenly appear and respectfully hand him a bundle.

“……”

Luo Shaoxuan took the bundle and smiled at her: “I want to go to my bedroom first.”

“Shaoxuan, listen to me…”

“Is it the same bedroom as last time?” he said, completely ignoring her, and walked towards the bedroom where he had stayed one night last time. Suddenly, as if he thought of something, he turned his head and said to Si Qingyu, who was stunned on the spot: “That silk pillow isn’t very comfortable to sleep on. Could I change it?”

Being asked so seriously by him, Si Qingyu couldn’t help but nod in a daze.

Luo Shaoxuan gave her a sweet smile: “Then can I have the one in your room?”

“No…” Of course not. But seeing his sincere gaze, she thought that maybe the silk pillow in that bedroom was really uncomfortable: “I have another one in my room. I’ll get it for you in a bit.”

“Hmm… Alright.” He seemed to ponder for a while in distress, and finally agreed reluctantly. Taking the bundle, he entered the bedroom with practiced familiarity.

Only Si Qingyu was left standing in the courtyard. She felt that the night breeze was a bit chilly.

“Tsk.” Si Qingyu rubbed her forehead in a headache. What stupid things had she done!

She walked to the front of the bedroom and raised her hand to knock on the door, but then paused. If not, forget it. Let him stay tonight and send him back to town tomorrow. Si Qingyu naively thought that she could definitely get him to go back tomorrow.

Si Qingyu resignedly went to the kitchen to heat water for him. Just as she had started the fire, she heard Luo Shaoxuan’s voice coming from outside: “Ziliang, can I go to your bedroom and get the silk pillow myself?”

“Mm, it’s in the chest behind the screen in the room.”

“Okay.”

Luo Shaoxuan entered her bedroom as he wished and gently closed the door. He lit a candle and looked around the bedroom with great interest. The room was mostly filled with books, as well as some medicine bottles.

Finally, his gaze settled on the bed. He walked over with graceful steps and sat on the edge of the bed, burying his face deep into the quilt and sighing with satisfaction.

Luo Shaoxuan felt that his whole body was now surrounded by Si Qingyu’s fragrance, making him uncontrollably excited. A heat surged down to his lower abdomen. He let out a muffled groan and began rubbing against the quilt.

“Shaoxuan, couldn’t find the silk pillow?” Si Qingyu’s voice came in. The blush on his face deepened, his misty eyes half-open, panting.

Outside, Si Qingyu found it strange. Was it that he couldn’t find it or what?

She walked to the tightly closed door and frowned. Was it necessary to close the door just to find a silk pillow?

She raised her hand and pushed the door open, only to see Luo Shaoxuan sitting on the edge of her bed with a flushed face. The corner of Si Qingyu’s eye twitched: “You… What are you doing?” Why was he sitting on her bed?

Luo Shaoxuan lightly touched his burning cheek, his voice hoarse: “I couldn’t find the silk pillow, so I wanted to take yours first.”

“……” Then why was his face so red?

Si Qingyu was speechless. She took out the silk pillow from the chest behind the screen in the bedroom and handed it to him: “The water is hot. Go wash first.”

“Mm.” Luo Shaoxuan got up and took the silk pillow. Just as he was about to go out, the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of a bright color.

Hmm? What was that?