Chapter 46.1 – The waist had bumped into a warm and cottony-soft ball of something.

Proofreader: Lore

While the day was still early, the most dedicated gossip reporters of B City had already arrived at this seemingly mediocre hospital to show their care and enthusiasm for their headlines.

The earliest piece of news came from a doctor’s circle of friends. The doctor had written: “It was only a night shift but I actually managed to run into Su Chi coming in for a fracture, even having to be hospitalized. The wound seemed to be quite serious. I think all the fans will probably have to feel distressed.”

He had also attached a blurry picture of a man who from the back seemed to be Su Chi sitting and talking to the doctor while two other people stood beside him accompanying him.

There just so happened to be Su Chi’s fans in his circle of friends, so as this was passed from one to ten, ten to a hundred, the screenshot of the post along with the captioning “Su Chi injured, fracture” quickly spread the news out.

And since the news was able to spread through the fans, it was impossible for the reporters with their keen sense of gossip to not realize and catch on. So at the speed of light, the original sender of the post was found and even the hospital where he was employed got dug out.

Seeing how the popularity of the hot search “Su Chi injured, fracture” continued to rise visibly to the eye, the search started to slowly climb the rankings. Moreover, as more and more melon-seed eaters were just starting to get up for the day, it was expected that there would be even more people paying attention to this gossip later on. So the reporters rolled up their sleeves for battle and scrambled against each other to try and grab this for their headlines.

However, the doctor who made the post wasn’t the doctor who had actually treated Su Chi, which could be seen from the photo he sent. He had probably only heard that Su Chi had registered with his own ID card and had gone over to take a look at the excited crowd at that time. Therefore, the gossip reporters hadn’t been able to find the location of Su Chi’s ward at first time.

However, with the temptation of such a massive headline right there, the gossip reporters with their unflagging efforts still came to the hospital to hover around outside the singles ward area of the hospital一 All of them believing that Su Chi would be inside. Just as everyone tilted their ears forward to carefully listen – not planning to leave any hints or traces unfollowed – the door was opened with a “squeak一” and Xia Rong came out of it.

They were all old friends after all. Though the doctors who might have caught a glimpse of him while in a passing hurry might not be able to recognize him, in the eyes of these “media friends,” who have seen his face countless of times, Xia Rong was just a walking luminous body¹I imagine it as being like will-o’-wisps or literal stars, etc.!

As the two sides stared at each other face to face, Xia Rong was shocked dumb while the reporters went crazy. With long barrels and short cannons pointing towards his face, and the camera flashes and shutter sounds coming one after another, all of this torment and tossing about almost completely blinded the plain-faced Xia Rong.

“Xia Rong, I heard that Su Chi was hospitalized for a fracture?”

“Excuse me, Xia Rong, is the person in the ward Su Chi?”

“Xia Rong, how is Su Chi’s situation? Is it very serious?”

“Pardon but, why would you appear here?”

…

Even if Xia Rong was used to this kind of scene, he also felt what a massive headache this was, given that he had stayed up the entire night. He lowered the brim of his hat and tightly pressed his lips together, not speaking a word. He struggled forward through the crowd and finally managed to catch a nearby nurse. “Hello, the IV of the patient in bed XXX is finished, may I bother you to take a look²Thinking about it… I don’t see what the IV would have been for..”

When the nurse saw his face then also saw the large number of people behind him, she was stunned for a moment before finally reacting. Her face flushed red, stuttered some “oh-oh!”s, and then lowered her head and ran away to refill Su Chi’s drip.

As soon as the crowd heard what Xia Rong had said, their eyes immediately moved to follow the little nurse. At this time, Xia Rong couldn’t help but feel grateful for a second that, fortunately, he had managed to attract these gossip reporter’s attention just now, so that they didn’t directly rush into Su Chi’s room.

Then taking hold of the opportunity before they could catch up, Xia Rong rushed to the front with large strides. While bearing the shutter sounds from behind him, he pulled open the door for the nurse and quickly squeezed in himself.

Originally, Su Chi’s sleep had already been shallow, so at this time, he woke up in spite of everything. He was sitting up against the head of the bed, looking over, and how he hugged the blanket was as if he was holding a ball of snow.

Xia Rong closed the door with quite the difficulty, not knowing just whether or how much of Su Chi they managed to photograph. It was prohibited to cause clamor or hubbub inside the hospital. So the gossip reporters, afraid of being driven out, although they were already blocking the door, they didn’t dare to make too much noise and just knocked to say, “Xia Rong, Su Chi, we’ll just ask a few questions, we’ll leave after asking!”

Xia Rong came in and pulled off the baseball cap with great annoyance, throwing it on the bedside table with one fling. Su Chi’s IV was just in the process of getting changed by the little nurse, hearing the movement, he looked up at the other. “It’s okay, Xia Rong. I’ve already made the call. Han-ge will get on the plane in a bit, just bear it for a while longer, okay?”

Xia Rong was taken aback for a moment. He didn’t expect that, contrarily, Su Chi would actually choose to comfort him first. So he couldn’t help but press down his irritation. “…Oh, I’m not… I’m just vexed for you. Having been troubled the entire night, they won’t even let you have a small calming nap…”

“I’m fine. It’s the same if I sleep a bit later.” But Su Chi seemed to be quite happy, his eyes had even curved up. “Xia Rong, you come and sit, cut an apple for me.”

Xia Rong sighed and really did sit down beside the bed. Without any fuss or complaint, he picked up an apple and started peeling it.

The nurse was on the side, working on the IV as she listened to their conversation, and she couldn’t help but remark, “Oh, it really is you guys! Can, can I ask you two to sign for me?”

“I’m afraid my hands won’t be up for it.” Su Chi smiled as he waved his “steamed bun hands” and then said, “Let Xia Rong sign it for you, sign for both of us.”

“Really?! Your relationship sure is good!” The little nurse looked ecstatic. After she finished changing the IV, she took out the pen and paper that she always had on hand from her pocket and handed it to Xia Rong with her eyes shining and bright. “Sorry to trouble you!”

Xia Rong reached out to take the pen and paper, giving Su Chi a brief glance一 Su Chi looked right back at him most naturally一 Well fine, he concedes. =_=

He signed the two people’s names on the paper, “Xia Rong, Su Chi.” Different names but with the same font, lying there right next to each other, close and affectionately as if they were destined to be like this by the Heavens above.

The nurse took back the pen and paper with a face of excitement. “Thank you thank you thank you! Can I post it online?”

Xia Rong took another look at Su Chi, then paused before saying, “…That’s okay, but it would be best to wait a few days, so as to not expose our location.”

“No problem, no problem!” The nurse readily promised, and again asked curiously, “You two are filming a variety show together right now, right? The Liang Shanbo and Romeo one? Su Chi’s this… Was this a work-related injury?”

“It’s not considered a work-related injury, it’s not convenient for us to mention the circumstances,” Su Chi said with a smile, “However, you can take as we had gone to participate in 《The Metamorphosis³The novella by Franz Kafka?》.”

“《The Metamorphosis》?!”

Xia Rong: “…”

To be exact, it was 《The Catshift⁴Metamorphosis in Chinese is [变形记] while the latter is [变猫记], so only the middle character was changed. Literally it’s “change shape record” vs. “change cat record.”》.

YinYue has something to say:

Still haven’t had the chance to go over the PR for the last chapter, but it should be out/updated within 24 hours.

7.25: It’s updated~

• 1
  I imagine it as being like will-o’-wisps or literal stars, etc. ↩︎
• 2
  Thinking about it… I don’t see what the IV would have been for. ↩︎
• 3
  The novella by Franz Kafka? ↩︎
• 4
  Metamorphosis in Chinese is [变形记] while the latter is [变猫记], so only the middle character was changed. Literally it’s “change shape record” vs. “change cat record.” ↩︎