The night grew deeper and deeper, as if there were no light left in the pitch-black sky, only dense snowflakes drifting down, little by little.
In the shadows of night, there were no stray passers-by in the community.
It was so quiet that one could only hear the sound of snow falling from the branches from time to time, it was as if Tang Li was the only one left in the entire world.
He looked at the ground quietly, and the snow fell on his long eyelashes. It melted quickly into ice water and soaked into his eyes, which made his eyes red and his thin lips blue.
It was not long before Tang Li reluctantly moved his almost frozen legs and turned around very slowly.
Just behind him on his right, beside a small flower bed, there was an ordinary Buick car. The dark car seemed to melt into the night, and there was no light coming from it.
It’s hard to find a car parked there if you weren’t intentionally looking for it.
But Tang Li’s eyes did not stay on the car. He was just stood stunned for a moment and then quickly turned away.
If he’s not mistaken…
Shen Yu is in that car.
No, with his knowledge of Shen Yu, Shen Yu must certainly be in that car. If Uncle Zhang came alone, he would not have secretly parked the car in the dark.
With his arms folded into one another, Tang Li felt that his brain was somewhat dull from the cold air. However, when Shen Yu’s gentle and kind smiling face appeared in front of him, he suddenly felt that it was not cold at all.
It was if his heart was filled with a warmth.
In a trance, he remembered the question raised by Lei Yumeng not long ago, why he didn’t tell Shen Yu the truth.
Actually, there’s no particularly complicated reason.
It’s just that it’s troublesome.
Just like how he had promised to play a childish game of love with Lei Yumeng, it was because he thought that Lei Yumeng was too troublesome. He simply needed to borrow the hands of the teacher or the group of girls to do something about her.
The fact that things got to this point was unexpected.
At first, he did feel guilty and panicked, but when he learned from his desk mate before leaving school that Lei Yumeng had some previous animosity with that group of girls, all he had left was the desire to quickly put an end to the matter.
As for the speculation about the authenticity of Lei Yumeng’s suicide, it was only a guess made by him in combination with his desk mate’s gossip.
Unexpectedly, Lei Yumeng admitted it fairly easily.
In fact, he didn’t mind this little play of Lei Yumeng’s, but he was upset that it was going on endlessly.
What’s more, in Shen Yu’s eyes, he is just a child who is somewhat touchy, unreasonable and lonely. He would rather Shen Yu mistook him for a cold-blooded person than let Shen Yu know that he has so many calculating thoughts.
—————
Snowy nights are especially cold.
Shen Yu was wrapped in a heavy overcoat. Before going out, Uncle Zhang put a blanket on his legs, but even sitting in the car, he still felt the bitter cool air drilling into his clothes.
Shen Yu shivered. He shrank his neck in and buried most of his face in his collar, revealing only a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes.
Uncle Zhang sat in the driver’s seat, turned his head and looked at Shen Yu shivering in the cold, so he advised, “Sir, you’d better close the window. It’s too cold outside, and the car is heated. It’s easy to get sick if it’s blowing like this.”
“It’s all right.” Shen Yu replied absently, leaning sideways in the wheelchair, holding his cheek in one hand, and staring at something in front of him.
The thin figure was struggling in the snow.
Shen Yu was distressed watching this, as if all his internal organs were being tightly gripped. It was so painful that he could hardly breathe.
At this moment, he wished he could get out of the car and bring the little villain back. Even if Tang Li did not want to go, he would drag Tang Li over by force. However, in retrospect, he hesitated when he thought about Tang Li’s attitude towards him before.
What should we do in case the little villain hates him even more?
Shen Yu sighed and then told Uncle Zhang, “Call Kang Lin and ask him when he can come. Let him wait outside the main entrance of the community and take Chestnut to the hospital for an examination.”
The little villain had stayed up all day and all night in the ice and snow, so Shen Yu was concerned about Tang Li’s small body.
Oh yeah!
During this period, did Tang Li even drink a mouthful of water?
Thinking of this, Shen Yu felt his heart ache as if it was being stabbed by a needle.
Yesterday afternoon, he detested Tang Li’s behavior, and now, he regretted that he treated Tang Li in the same bad way. Even worse, the little villain was only a teenager, and needed adults to guide him in the right way.
You can’t expect a twisted iron bar to straighten out all at once.
Perhaps it is more useful to educate with a soothing tone than to punish severely.
When Shen Yu was in a mess thinking about it, Uncle Zhang had already called Kang Lin, and he said, “Kang Lin will be here in a few minutes, so we can leave first…”
Uncle Zhang’s words were interrupted by Shen Yu’s actions before they were finished.
Just now, Tang Li, walking on the snow, somehow, suddenly fell straight forward, and then there was no movement.
Shen Yu, who was always staring at Tang Li’s appearance outside, was frightened, and had no time to think about it. He opened the door reflexively and rushed out in his wheelchair.
Fortunately, Uncle Zhang’s eyes and hands seized Shen Yu’s arm quickly.
“Wait in the car. I’ll go and have a look.” When Uncle Zhang finished, he got out and ran over.
Shortly after, Uncle Zhang rushed back with the unconscious Chestnut in his arms. He put him in the back seat and rushed back to the driver’s seat to start the car.
Shen Yu covered Tang Li with the blanket that was originally on his legs. He held Tang Li’s hand. The cold touch seemed to soak into Shen Yu’s skin and then spread to his bones.
“Ah…” Shen Yu was so cold that he couldn’t help letting go of Tang Li’s hand.
The Tang Li wrapped in the blanket seemed to have some sense of this and leaned closer to Shen Yu. Who knows whether it was by instinct or deliberate, but the little villain rubbed Shen Yu’s palm with his small face.
The little villain’s long eyelashes trembled, his face was pale, and his lips were purple.
He looked pitiful.
“Chestnut.” Shen Yu carefully stroked Tang Li’s cold cheeks, and his voice was trembling with pain. “It’s all right. We’ll take you to the hospital.”
Shen Yu thought that Tang Li was unconscious, but after his words were finished, Tang Li opened his eyes slowly, and his dim vision gradually focused on Shen Yu’s face.
The small phoenix eyes were half closed, but the visible part of those dark eyes was covered with a thin layer of mist.
“Shen Yu…” Tang Li’s throat was too cold to speak properly.
“I’m here.” Shen Yu hurried over and tried to rub some warmth into Tang Li’s cheeks. He asked nervously, “Is it still cold?”
Subsequently, Shen Yu quickly turned to Uncle Zhang who was driving and said, “Turn the heating to the maximum setting.”
Uncle Zhang said, “Sir, it has reached its maximum.”
Shen Yu was anxious and helpless, so he urged Uncle Zhang to drive faster. Then he turned back to tuck the blanket more securely around Tang Li, when suddenly, Tang Li held his arm in a tight grip.
“I’m so cold…” Tang Li said in a hoarse, almost imploring, voice, “Shen Yu, hold me. Please?”
Shen Yu looked down at the misty eyes of Tang Li, eyes that could not hide his hope, like a pitiful puppy.
“Hold me in your arms…” Tang Li urged in a low voice.
Shen Yu could not refuse, so he reluctantly changed his position in his wheelchair.
Now, he was facing Tang Li. Just as he wanted to reach out to hold him, he saw that Tang Li, who had just looked so weak, quickly burrowed into his arms, the little villain’s movements were very flexible.
Shen Yu: “…”
For a moment, he thought that Tang Li was pretending to be ill.
Only, when Shen Yu looked down and saw Tang Li lying on his leg, his eyes closed, breathing with his mouth in great difficulty and knotting his eyebrows in pain, he quickly dispelled those doubtful thoughts.
At this time, he is still thinking about how he had treated the little villain before.
Shen Yu couldn’t help feeling immense guilt over his previous conduct.
He unbuttoned his overcoat and wrapped it around the upper half of Tang Li.
Tang Li sensed Shen Yu’s movements and changed his position in his arms. He buried his face in Shen Yu’s chest and held his hands tightly around Shen Yu’s waist.
“Shen Yu.” Tang Li said in a muffled voice, “Sorry, I was wrong. I’ll never do that again.”
Tang Li could not even speak clearly, so it took some effort for Shen Yu to discern what the little villain was talking about.
Shen Yu was stunned. He patted Tang Li on the back and said, “I was wrong too.”
“No, you were right.” Tang Li shook his head in Shen Yu’s bosom, hugged Shen Yu tightly and said, “The wrong person is me, I lied to you, I did those things, but I apologized to Lei Yumeng, and she forgave me.”
Shen Yu sighed, “I know.”
Tang Li spoke in an anxious voice, “Shen Yu, will you forgive me?”
Shen Yu stroked Tang Li’s back and said gently, “Of course, who let you be the child of our Shen family?”
After a long time, Tang Li said, “Will you still drive me away then?”
Shen Yu thought for a while before he could understand what Tang Li was talking about. He remembered the episode where he had asked him to move to the house near the school. He burst into tears and laughed. Shen Yu bowed his head and kissed Tang Li’s soft hair.
“I’m sorry, I said those words in anger, but now I take them back.”
After that, Shen Yu noticeably felt Tang Li’s body tremble fiercely. He was really afraid of Tang Li’s frozen voice, which seemed to be losing its ability to speak. He hastened to say, “Don’t talk, you have a rest first, and I’ll wake you later when I get to the hospital.”
Tang Li nodded obediently.
Soon, he fell asleep in Shen Yu’s arms.
However, when he arrived at the hospital, Shen Yu did not wake up Tang Li, but instead asked Uncle Zhang to help him carry it.
Throughout the process, Tang Li did not wake up. At first Shen Yu thought Tang Li was sleeping soundly, so he asked doctors and nurses to move quietly so as not to wake up the child.
Later, after the doctor examined the little villain, he was still unconscious.
That evening, Shen Yu worried quite a lot. Although the doctor gave Tang Li an iv infusion, at midnight, Tang Li suddenly developed a high fever.
Shen Yu sat in the wheelchair beside Tang Li’s sick bed. Eventually, he fell asleep in the chair. When he woke up in the early morning, before sunrise, he touched the little villain’s forehead on instinct. The next second he was frightened by the hot temperature and he instantly turned pale.
“Uncle Zhang!” Shen Yu shouted, even his voice changed, and he immediately woke up Uncle Zhang and Kang Lin, who were both dozing outside the room.
Uncle Zhang immediately called in a doctor and asked the him to give Tang Li an injection. Only then did Tang Li’s condition gradually improve.
Shen Yu breathed in relief, and later realized that he had broken out into a cold sweat. Sweaty underwear clinging to the skin felt very uncomfortable.
Kang Lin saw Shen Yu’s face was pale, and a faint layer of dark blue appeared under Shen Yu’s eyes. He went up and suggested, “Sir, you and Mr. Zhang should go back first, I’ll stay here.”
“No.” Shen Yu shook his head and refused, “Anyway, it’ll be light out soon. Why don’t you go back to rest and come back at noon?”
As for Shen Yu’s proposal, Uncle Zhang and Kang Lin naturally did not agree, so they continued to take a nap on the bench outside the room.
Shen Yu drank a glass of cold water to wake up. He planned to sit by the bed until dawn, but before long, he fell asleep again.
This sleep was very uncomfortable.
Consciousness blurred, it was as if something was walking on the skin of Shen Yu’s face, something very light and itchy. Shen Yu frowned.
I felt like a hand touching his cheek carefully.
Shen Yu was a little uncomfortable and opened his eyes. Then he looked up at a pair of black eyes, which were slightly flustered.