Old Wounds, New Growth - Chapter 3

Translator: Deyonna

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He was stunned for a few seconds, then straightened his legs, closed the small book in his hand, and looked at me helplessly.

I was actually gritting my teeth so hard that I thought they would break.

But I couldn't move. My heart was beating so fast that my hands and feet were no longer under my control.

This was the living seventeen-year-old Li Chishu.

After a few seconds——an extremely long few seconds, he finally reacted and said, "Your... your ball." Then he bent down to pick up the ball.

My body awakened at that moment, and I took a step forward to try to get the ball before him.

But then I tripped.

Li Chishu, with quick reflexes, reached out his hand to pick up the ball, but immediately lifted it up to help support me.

……it's over.

This is my wife.

This is my wife, who is secretly in love with me.

What if he thinks I'm not handsome anymore?

My mind was a mess, and in the three seconds that Li Chishu supported me, this terrible thought occupied the largest space in my mind.

Finally, the moment when he was about to let go of me, I grabbed his arm with my other hand and asked, "How did you sleep last night?"

He was stunned again. "...... What?"

Between being handsome and not handsome, I still care more about Li Chishu's well-being.

"How did you sleep last night?" My palm felt the warmth of his forearm. With an unreasonable heart and unruly behavior, I held onto him tightly and refused to let go. My gaze was fixed on his face, motionless. "Did you have tinnitus? Did you have stomach pains?"

Two years before Li Chishu's death, for a long time, he would put a glass of soda water on the bedside table every night before going to bed.

At first, I thought he was just thirsty, but later, I noticed that every morning, around six or seven o'clock, he would toss and turn in bed for a while before sitting up to drink water. There were several times when I woke up and caught him doing this, and I would stop him and take away his glass of water, replacing it with warm water from the living room.

Later, he told me that the glass he had been drinking from was filled with soda water.

Because he always had stomach pain in the morning, he thought that drinking soda water at that time would help, but it didn't really make a difference.

After I noticed something was wrong, I asked him if he had any other symptoms.

He was silent for a moment before telling me that when I wasn't home at night and he slept alone, he would have mild tinnitus.

Li Chishu was someone who had a habit of downplaying severe pain to just a slight discomfort. If he had only a mild tinnitus, he would have told me that there was nothing wrong. If he had reached the point where he would tell me about the tinnitus, then the symptoms must have reached a very severe stage.

When I suggested taking him to see a doctor, he immediately changed his mind and said that it wasn't really that serious.

During that time, I was busy wrapping up a project, and because I was very worried, I secretly installed a surveillance camera in our room.

It turns out that every day when I am not at home, Li Chishu barely closes his eyes before four o'clock in the morning.

He would toss and turn in the darkness, sitting up sometimes, lying down, and covering his ears with the blanket at other times. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he would go to another room and walk around for a while before coming back and putting on earplugs. I think all of this was caused by his long-term tinnitus.

He would be tormented like this until three or four o'clock in the morning, and then he would curl up in bed and finally calm down a bit——he must have finally fallen asleep. But around six or seven o'clock, he would restlessly wake up again, pick up, and drink the ice-cold soda water on the bedside table sip by sip into his stomach.

I insisted on taking him to the hospital for a check-up, and after a series of tests, the doctor said that he only had anemia and that there was no major problem with his stomach. The doctor prescribed some psychiatric medication and advised him not to be under too much stress.

Li Chishu didn't look very surprised. He just turned his head and asked me with a smile when he stepped out of the hospital, "Can we remove the surveillance camera now?"

It turned out that he knew everything.

I couldn't argue with him, and even though I took down the surveillance camera, I still couldn't rest easy. So every day, after working late into the night, I would try my best to go home and watch over him while he slept. Although he never explicitly mentioned it, during the days when I was at home with him, it was obvious that Li Chishu fell asleep much more easily.

He was the kind of person who never wanted to trouble others in the slightest. However, during those two months, even though Li Chishu could see my exhaustion, he never repeatedly refused my behavior of going home. I think it was because his health condition truly pushed him to a point where he really needed me.

Just when I was ready to give up on the next project and focus on taking care of him for six months, he suddenly returned to his crazy workaholic lifestyle from the first few years. He refused all my persuasions to take a break and go out to relax, and looking back now, I can't say for sure whether it was intentional or not. Maybe he didn't want me to make any sacrifices, so he made the choice between me and his work before I had to.

If I had been more firm in my attitude back then, would Li Chishu have stayed a little longer?

Shen Baoshan, you're really an idiot.

I stared at Li Chishu, serious and eager to hear his answer.

He probably thought I was being unreasonable and tried to calmly take his arm back from my grip. "No, I sleep well."

He pretended really well.

Fortunately, the twenty-five-year-old Li Chishu told me that he had secretly loved Shen Baoshan throughout high school, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tell.

I pushed forward and held him tighter. "Have you eaten?"

He was completely stunned. "It's only the third period now."

"That means you haven't eaten," I said. "Let's have lunch together."

Li Chishu was caught off guard and his brain seemed to have short-circuited for a moment. "No... no need…"

"What are you holding?" I leaned against the ping-pong table next to him. "Let me see."

His mind obediently followed my words, and he picked up the small book and handed it to me. "Vocabulary book."

I absentmindedly flipped through it. "How many units have you memorized?"

Li Chishu replied, "It's not divided by units…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Chi started howling again, "Shen Baoshan! What are you doing?!"

Li Chishu looked over.

I pretended not to hear. "So, how far have you memorized?"

Li Chishu's gaze fell back on the page I was holding. "Uh... it's in…"

Jiang Chi's voice echoed in the background like a lingering ghost. "Shen Baoshan! Come over here!"

I flipped the vocabulary book to the page with a crease. "Here?"

 "No," Li Chishu said, "It's further ahead…"

"Shen! Bao! Shan!"

"......"

Li Chishu felt very guilty and looked up in Jiang Chi's direction again.

I closed my eyes.

... This fool.

Li Chishu hesitated to speak, "Jiang Chi……"

I placed the book back into his hands and straightened up, walking towards the other side. "You carry it first."

After taking a few steps, I remembered to turn back and remind him. "Pay attention to your eyes."

Protecting Li Chishu should start from a young age, lest this person end up wearing glasses in his twenties with a prescription of more than a thousand.

After calling me countless times, Jiang Chi finally asked me as soon as I arrived, "Who's that person?"

I threw the ball at him. "Your sister-in-law."

 Jiang Chi asked, "What?"

"Li-Chi-Shu." I turned my head towards him and emphasized, "From Class 25, ranked first in the grade. Is it that hard to recognize?"

"Oh, Li Chishu." Jiang Chi patted the ball and made a shooting movement. "I didn't see clearly. If you had said his name, I would have known. I thought I misheard it."

"What did you hear?"

"I heard you say 'your sister-in-law'." Jiang Chi chuckled. "It scared me. You're talking about a man."

I stared at him for a moment, contemplating how I had been friends with this stupid big man for over twenty years.

In the end, I attributed the reason to the fact that our villas were close to each other, and our relationship was doomed from the time we wore open-crotch pants. There was just no way around it.

"We agreed to play basketball in your house's basement tonight."

"We can't."

Jiang Chi asked, "Why?"

I don't know why, but I definitely want to stay with Li Chishu.

"... My dad needs to use the basketball court." I made up a random excuse. "Let's do it another day."

"Why does your dad always do this?" Jiang Chi grumbled. "How about tomorrow?"

"Let's talk about it later."

Before playing basketball, I glanced at Li Chishu's position once again and our eyes met by chance as he was silently reciting words.

"Eyes," I said those two words to him using lip language and then gestured with my hand.

I wasn't sure if he understood or not, as he quickly averted his gaze, avoiding my line of sight.

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