MY - 7

The car sped down the highway.

The road was flat and wide, with wild grass growing on both sides. The clouds were thick, obscuring the moonlight. Streetlights, spaced every twenty meters, were not very bright.

Jiang Xi had been looking out the window since getting into the car. Lu Nandu also remained silent, and the atmosphere was tense.

Since the last dinner party, Jiang Xi hadn’t seen Lu Nandu again. Their only recent interaction was at the bar, and both still remembered the unpleasant parting then.

Over time, ex-lovers become expendable burdens—annoying when seen, forgotten when absent.

Whether they are truly forgotten, even those involved may not be sure.

Jiang Xi’s emotions were usually calm and composed, but when facing Lu Nandu, the emotions she emitted carried a subtle, suppressed negativity, though still restrained.

People always mature with age.

They remained silent until they reached the city hospital.

The car stopped smoothly in front of the hospital. Jiang Xi unbuckled her seatbelt, maintaining her politeness: “Thank you.” She then moved to open the door and get out.

Lu Nandu: “I’ll go in with you.”

Jiang Xi paused her motion to open the door, then after a moment, lowered her gaze: “No need.” She then got out of the car without hesitation.

________________________________________

The emergency room was brightly lit all night. Even in the dead of night, there were still many people. Low murmurs filled the hall, and nurses walked back and forth.

Jiang Xi registered and sat in the hall, waiting for the doctor to call her number.

She glanced at the emergency entrance. Lu Nandu’s car was already gone. Jiang Xi calmly withdrew her gaze.

The emergency hall was filled with sleeping people, but Jiang Xi was wide awake. She had rested for a few hours after finishing work in the afternoon, and now, in the early hours of the morning, she felt no trace of drowsiness.

The electronic screen showed that there were three patients ahead of her.

Jiang Xi’s seat was directly opposite the entrance. She retracted her gaze from the electronic screen but saw Lu Nandu entering through the emergency room door.

Their gazes met mid-air. Lu Nandu exuded an air of nobility, much more mature than when he was a teenager, his steps unhurried.

Jiang Xi was the first to look away.

Lu Nandu had only gone to the parking lot to park; he hadn’t left. He walked closer to Jiang Xi, not sitting beside her, but leaning against the opposite wall.

The man had shed the formal seriousness of his business affairs, appearing relaxed and languid, his hands in his suit pants pockets. He glanced at Jiang Xi.

Jiang Xi ignored him, as if the person opposite her were merely a stranger.

She looked down at the ground, her head throbbing too much to look at her phone. Bored as she was, she still refused to speak to Lu Nandu.

Lu Nandu didn’t bother her either. The man didn’t have his usual impatience; he had reined in his typical sharpness, his eyes drooping.

A well-behaved dejection.

Jiang Xi stared at the ground for a long time, never raising her head.

At some point, the person opposite pulled out his phone to answer a call, saying something she couldn’t quite make out.

Jiang Xi vaguely heard his voice, deep, slightly hoarse, with a settled quality unbefitting his age.

This voice, which once whispered playfully and coaxingly in her ear, was indeed different from before.

Lu Nandu had already hung up the phone, looking down with a furrowed brow, impatiently texting, probably someone looking for him.

Jiang Xi ignored him.

After an unknown period, Jiang Xi heard the man opposite speak.

“It’s your turn, go in.”

Jiang Xi’s fingers paused. She looked up and saw her name displayed on the electronic screen. She said nothing, put away her phone, and stood up.

________________________________________

Entering the consulting room, she found a young male doctor inside.

After an examination and inquiry, the male doctor wrote a prescription for Jiang Xi: “High fever caused by tonsillitis. Go to the first-floor window to get the medicine, then to the third-floor infusion room for an IV drip.”

Hearing “infusion,” Jiang Xi said: “No infusion, just oral medication.”

The male doctor looked up at her upon hearing this: “You currently have a high fever of 38.9 degrees Celsius, and your tonsils are severely swollen. An IV drip would be better.”

Jiang Xi wasn’t particularly timid among women; she didn’t fear many things and even enjoyed extreme sports. But there was one thing she had never successfully overcome since childhood: she was afraid of injections.

Jiang Xi told the doctor honestly: “I’m needle-phobic.”

“Can’t you bear it?”

“No.”

The male doctor was at his wit’s end with her and began to modify the prescription: “Alright then, so—”

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a male voice: “Give her an IV.”

The male doctor paused, looking at the man standing at the entrance of the consulting room.

Lu Nandu carried an unkind coldness, highly aggressive.

Jiang Xi didn’t turn her head, her expression calm.

The male doctor realized they had some connection and didn’t ask further, intending to revise the prescription again.

The next second, Jiang Xi spoke up to stop him, her tone flat: “Don’t bother, just prescribe the oral medication.”

The male doctor stopped writing again. He wasn’t unfamiliar with such patients and said calmly: “How about this, you two discuss it first,” he looked at Jiang Xi, “Tell me after you’ve discussed, and then I’ll write the prescription.”

The doctor in front of her probably didn’t know what had happened between them.

But Jiang Xi remembered it clearly.

In the past, whenever Jiang Xi got sick and didn’t want an IV, Lu Nandu would cling to her, playfully coaxing her with soft words, calling her “Jiejie” until she was willing to go to the hospital.

At that time, the boy was only seventeen or eighteen.

Yet he could effortlessly make one surrender, willingly captured.

In Ji Yuanzhou’s words back then, it was as if they had been given some kind of love potion.

Although Lu Nandu would always gently persuade her to go to the hospital, Jiang Xi still couldn’t bear to watch the nurse insert the needle. Every time, she would turn her head and stare at Lu Nandu.

The boy was mischievous to the core, never doing anything proper. Once, when Jiang Xi was looking at him, he playfully bit her lip.

The consequence was, of course, a beating from Jiang Xi.

She wondered why she still remembered it so clearly after so many years.

Jiang Xi’s face remained expressionless, without a hint of anger: “No need to discuss; I’m not getting an IV.”

Lu Nandu didn’t speak.

The doctor nodded: “Alright.” After a series of keystrokes, he told Jiang Xi, “Pay at the counter, then collect your medicine at the pharmacy window.”

Jiang Xi took the slip and stood up: “Thank you.”

When she turned to leave, Lu Nandu was no longer at the consulting room door. Jiang Xi ignored him and went to queue at the counter.

________________________________________

The emergency room was less crowded late at night, and it only took a few minutes to collect her medicine.

Jiang Xi, carrying a bag of medicine, left the emergency room and pulled out her phone to check the time. It was past one in the morning.

Jiang Xi tucked her phone back into her pocket, looked up, and paused her foot on the step.

Lu Nandu’s car was parked at the bottom of the steps. He was leaning against the car door, waiting for her. Their eyes met. A second later, Jiang Xi silently looked away.

She quickly regained her composure, ignored Lu Nandu, and walked straight past him, intending to flag a taxi outside.

Lu Nandu straightened up from the car door, swayed slightly, and grabbed her wrist: “You won’t get a taxi now.”

Jiang Xi was pulled back, her body swaying, and finally, a hint of emotion, a slight irritation, returned. She looked back at him.

She looked at Lu Nandu: “What does whether I can get a taxi have to do with you?”

Lu Nandu’s eyelashes were long and thick. When he frowned sadly, the crease of his double eyelids was deep, and his dark eyes held helplessness.

He instinctively said: “Jiejie.”

Lu Nandu’s face was handsome and sharp, with thick eyebrows and deep-set eyes. When such a person sheds their edges and becomes gentle and playful only for you, no one can resist.

Jiang Xi averted her gaze, turning her head back: “I told you not to call me that.” She tried to pull free from Lu Nandu’s grasp.

Just like last time, Lu Nandu didn’t let go. He repeated: “You won’t get a taxi out here at this hour.”

Jiang Xi turned her head, her face cold: “What right do you have to control me?”

“Lu Nandu.” This was the first time Lu Nandu had heard Jiang Xi call his name since they re-met.

Jiang Xi looked at him, enunciating each word: “You are the least qualified person in this world to control me. Whether I get an IV or whether I ride in your car has nothing to do with you.”

After a few seconds of silence, Lu Nandu spoke, his voice slightly hoarse.

“I know you don’t want to be with me,” he said, “but you can’t get a taxi outside right now, and it’s not safe. Just bear with it and take my car back.”

Jiang Xi didn’t speak.

They were very close, so close that Jiang Xi could smell the faint scent of tobacco on Lu Nandu.

When he came to the hospital, he didn’t smell of smoke. So, after their argument about the IV, he had gone to smoke.

Lu Nandu averted his gaze from her face: “Don’t make a fuss with me right now. You can keep your distance from me however you want later, but not now.”

He had always known how much Jiang Xi resisted him, and he had kept his distance to avoid bothering her.

Jiang Xi still didn’t speak. She knew Lu Nandu was right.

Lu Nandu looked back at her again, his gaze not missing an inch of her face.

A few seconds later, Jiang Xi pulled her hand free and walked towards the passenger side, pulling the car door open and getting in.

Lu Nandu watched her back until she disappeared the moment the car door closed. He stood in place for a few seconds, finally lowering his head and giving a self-deprecating chuckle.

________________________________________

The drive back had even fewer cars than the journey there. The highway became increasingly empty and desolate.

The atmosphere in the car was even more strained than before. They still hadn’t spoken by the time they reached the hotel where the crew was staying.

From a distance, someone was standing downstairs at the hotel.

Through the windshield, Jiang Xi recognized the figure as Xu Yanran.

It was late autumn now, and the weather grew colder as night fell. Xu Yanran was wrapped in a coat, stomping her feet from the cold downstairs.

The car stopped at the hotel entrance. Xu Yanran leaned forward to peek into the car, a bit surprised to see Jiang Xi in the passenger seat: “Sister Jiang Xi?”

Lu Nandu glanced at her coldly.

Jiang Xi unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed the car door open to get out.

Xu Yanran was still surprised: “Why are you here?”

“Went to the hospital,” Jiang Xi said.

Xu Yanran exclaimed: “Oh! I just heard my mom say someone had a fever and went to the hospital. So it was you!”

Jiang Xi chuckled: “Yes, my body’s useless.”

Xu Yanran comforted her: “How is that related to whether your body is useful or not? Everyone gets sick. I had a cold last month too.”

Jiang Xi lowered her eyelids and smiled, then asked: “Why are you standing downstairs?”

Xu Yanran seemed to remember the main point then, pointing at Lu Nandu’s car: “Waiting for him.”

Jiang Xi froze.

Xu Yanran smiled and asked her: “Do you know him?”

Without waiting for Jiang Xi to answer, she leaned forward and asked the person in the car: “Can we go now?”

Lu Nandu’s voice was quite cold: “Get in the car.”

Xu Yanran pouted, muttering softly: “Bad temper.”

Jiang Xi was close enough to hear clearly.

A complicated feeling welled up in her heart. Before she could react, Xu Yanran waved to her: “Sister Jiang Xi, I’m leaving now. See you tomorrow.”

Jiang Xi’s lips curved into an arc: “See you tomorrow.”

Xu Yanran got into the car. Jiang Xi lowered her eyelids, her face devoid of any expression.

The engine roared behind her. A few seconds later, she raised her eyes, and without looking back, walked straight into the hotel.

She didn’t see Lu Nandu glancing in the rearview mirror behind her.