Back Then, I Adored You

He laid motionless for a long time until the nurse knocked on the door once more and entered the room. “Mr. Gu, would you like to have your dinner now?”

Gu Yusheng eventually replied, “No.”

She closed the door and left him in silence. He adjusted himself into a comfortable position but, just as he managed to close his eyes, the door was pushed open again. Slightly irritated by the nurse’s interruptions, he sprang up from the bed but, before he could say anything, a smiling Lu Bancheng entered the room with shopping bags of all sizes.

“Brother Sheng? How are you feeling?”

Not in the mood for him, Gu Yusheng laid back down in bed again.

Oblivious, Lu Bancheng put the shopping bags on a table and, bothered by the room’s dimness, he walked back to the door and flipped on the overhead lights. The room lit up brightly and the glaring lights caused them to both squint.

Gu Yusheng was forced to lift his arm to shield his eyes.

Grabbing a chair, Lu Bancheng settled himself down and whipped out his phone to play his game while he questioned Gu Yusheng. “So Brother Sheng, how’d you faint out of the blue with no other symptoms but a headache?”

In response, Gu Yusheng turned over so his back was facing Lu Bancheng.

Looking up and sneaking a glance at Gu Yusheng, Lu Bancheng could tell that at least half of his problem was his bad mood and depression. Not questioning him further, he continued playing his mobile game.

He received a notification in the Gamer Friends Updates section, and he clicked it without hesitation. Seeing the name “BB Is Scared Pls Protect Me” among the list of his unread updates, even without reading the message, he was immediately in great spirits. He tried again: “Brother Sheng, what’s up? Are you in a bad mood?”

As if he was asleep, Gu Yusheng remained motionless.

Still unbothered by how Gu Yusheng was ignoring him since he’d arrived, Lu Bancheng looked down at his phone and quickly typed out a reply for the message that “BB Is Scared Pls Protect Me” had left for him.

After sending out several replies and receiving no response, Lu Bancheng’s mood took a slight downturn and, just when he was about to press Send on his next message, she went offline.

His mood took a turn for the worst while he stared hard at his screen and scrolled through his entire chat history with “BB Is Scared Pls Protect Me.” Not willing to give up, he left another message for her that said, “Contact me when you’re online,” before tossing his phone aside.

Rising from his seat, he walked over to the table and fished out a few apples from a shopping bag before entering the restroom to wash them. After finding a fruit knife, he sat by Gu Yusheng’s bed and began to peel the apple deftly above the trash bin.

“Brother Sheng? When can you be discharged?”

Silence was the answer.

Undeterred by this, Lu Bancheng continued to ask, “Brother Sheng, weren’t you going to take time off some time later? What are your plans?”

The answer was the same—silence.

Recalling that “BB Is Scared Pls Protect Me” had sent him a message two days ago saying that she was in Lijiang, Lu Bancheng went further to ask, “Brother Sheng, let’s go on a backpacking trip to Lijiang?”

Further silence ensued.

Cutting the apple that he had finished paring into smaller pieces, Lu Bancheng placed them into a glass bowl before taking another apple and proceeding to pare its skin.

After a few minutes of paring in continued silence, he let out a faint sigh. “No wonder Nuannuan and Xiao’ai are besties…”

Upon hearing Xiao’ai’s name, Gu Yusheng’s back tensed up.

Lu Bancheng continued speaking. “They’re truly sisters who’ve gone through a lot of hard times together. One had dated for ten years but it ended with the betrayal of her fiance. The other one’s father owed a huge gambling debt during her time at the university and she was forced to quit school to earn money to repay the debt…”