Chapter 44#

Chapter 44 Side Story — Nineteen

At eight in the morning, a nurse opened a window in the corridor. A cool breeze blew in, making the person on the chair shiver.

Mo Xi felt a little cold. Probably because the temperature in the hospital corridor was a bit low yesterday, he seemed to have caught a cold. Next to him was Pei Hao, who had fallen asleep leaning on the chair. His hands were crossed on his chest, his eyes were still facing Mo Xi’s direction, and there was a smile on his face, as if he was having a good dream.

In a trance, Mo Xi remembered the sentence “I miss you so much” that he said with a faint smile last night. Like a light cloud, it drifted onto his heart, tickling it gently. In such hazy moonlight, Pei Hao’s confession was so serious. If it were a few years ago, he would have been enchanted long ago. But yesterday he just turned his head slightly and didn’t give any response because he really didn’t know how to respond.

Not long after, the nurse came over to talk to Mo Xi, roughly meaning that the money paid was almost used up, so go and renew it quickly. Pei Hao woke up from his chaotic dream, shook his hair randomly, stood up, and took over the conversation: “Okay, I’ll go pay.”

“Pei Hao!” Mo Xi called out to the person who had already strode out and followed him, “Let me go pay.”

“You have no money,” Pei Hao rubbed Mo Xi’s hair hard, and then, afraid that he would be angry, quickly added, “You don’t even know where to pay.”

Pei Hao was right. He had emptied his pockets and only had a few thousand yuan left, which was a drop in the bucket compared to his sister’s medical expenses. He didn’t want to owe Pei Hao a favor at this time, but the reality was here. Mo Zi urgently needed medical expenses, and he couldn’t take them out.

Mo Xi lowered his head, his eyes dim, feeling very powerless.

Pei Hao sensed Mo Xi’s depressed mood, thinking that he had just hit a sore spot. He put one arm around Mo Xi’s neck, led him to the elevator entrance, touched the tip of his nose with his fingertip, and said: “Don’t think nonsense. Anyway, this money is just sitting in the bank if I don’t use it now.”

Mo Xi pursed his lips: “I will pay you back as soon as possible.”

Pei Hao originally wanted to say no rush, or simply say don’t pay it back. Anyway, he spent it willingly and never thought about getting it back. But thinking of Mo Xi’s distant attitude just now made him a little angry. Finally, he dropped a sentence “up to you” and got on the elevator.

Not long after, Xiao Jun came to take over the shift with breakfast. After Mo Xi and Pei Hao finished eating, he immediately drove them home to sleep.

As soon as the two walked out of the hospital entrance, Mo Xi turned to Pei Hao and said: “You go back. I booked a hotel.”

Pei Hao knew that with Mo Xi’s temperament, he wouldn’t stay at his house all the time, but he didn’t expect him to find a place so quickly. It showed how much this person wanted to stay away from him. Pei Hao didn’t ask him to stay anymore, just said: “I’ll take you there.”

“No need,” Mo Xi shook his head, afraid that he wouldn’t believe it, and even showed him the booking record on his phone, “It’s in the opposite direction from your home. Why bother going around?”

Pei Hao ignored him, hailed another taxi, reported the address Mo Xi had booked, and got in himself.

“…” Mo Xi couldn’t help rolling his eyes. If there was one thing about Pei Hao that hadn’t changed over the years, it was his stubborn temper. Anyway, as long as it was something he decided, no matter what others said, it couldn’t shake him at all.

When the car arrived at the hotel entrance, Pei Hao’s face darkened, and Mo Xi himself was shocked. What kind of hotel was this? It was a dilapidated guesthouse. The entrance was in an alley, and several open garbage bags around emitted a disgusting smell. The two walked to the front desk and waited for a long time before the waiter came out dragging his feet.

“Are you sure you want to stay here?” Pei Hao suppressed his displeasure and glanced at him sideways.

“Everywhere else is full.” Mo Xi replied in a low voice.

“Alright, call me if anything happens.” Pei Hao took a deep breath. Mo Xi would rather stay here than go back to his house. Maybe he should reflect on himself. Besides, he didn’t have any identity or status to make any decisions for Mo Xi now.

“Mm.” Mo Xi responded casually, scanned the surroundings, and thought that the environment here was just a bit poor. What could happen? As long as he could sleep.

Pei Hao just stepped out of the door, thought of something, turned back, pointed to Mo Xi’s phone and asked: “Do you know my number? The old one.”

Mo Xi nodded. Although he had blacklisted Pei Hao’s phone, he knew the number by heart, okay? No need to save it at all.

Pei Hao thought about it and still felt uneasy. He looked at Mo Xi and asked tentatively: “Is my number still on the blacklist?”

Mo Xi nodded again. Pei Hao suddenly felt angry and funny. Wasn’t this obvious? How confused was he to ask such a question?

Pei Hao lowered his head and sighed, then whispered pitifully: “Remove it.” When he said this, he didn’t dare to look up at Mo Xi, afraid that Mo Xi would give him another cold refusal. He didn’t want his disappointment to be too obvious then.

Mo Xi’s heart softened instantly. Such a proud person like Pei Hao probably never showed weakness to anyone in his previous life, but now he was humble in front of him, begging him to remove the phone number from the blacklist.

Still not cruel enough. Obviously, he didn’t do anything wrong, but seeing Pei Hao’s aggrieved look, he habitually felt heartache.

After Pei Hao left, Mo Xi was in a daze in the room. He turned his phone around in his hand, thought about it again and again, and finally found a justifiable reason for himself: Anyway, he would have to pay Pei Hao back in the future, so setting him as a normal contact was a matter of time.

After completing the operation, Mo Xi felt a stone fall from his heart. He prepared to take a shower and then sleep, but when he turned on the shower, he was dumbfounded. The water coming out was yellow.

He called the front desk. The front desk said sorry, the water pipe was repaired today, maybe some stuff got mixed in, just let it run for a while.

So he stood in front of the bathtub and let the water run for ten minutes. The water became clear, but there was no hot water for a long time. So he called the front desk again. The girl at the front desk replied while cracking melon seeds: “It’s too cold today and the water heater didn’t heat up. How about you wash tonight?”

Mo Xi was a bit speechless. It wasn’t like the water pipes were frozen in sub-zero temperatures in the dead of winter. In this weather of over ten degrees, how could the water heater not heat up? Can you have some common sense when lying? I would accept it more if you just said the water heater was broken.

Forget it, forget it. It’s cheap anyway, isn’t it?

Mo Xi thought he would wash at night, so he lay on the bed with his clothes on and fell asleep.

He didn’t know how long he slept, but suddenly there were continuous female voices from next door, accompanied by some kind of impact sound, and the man kept swearing. Mo Xi heard it clearly. The soundproofing here was really…

Resigned, Mo Xi put on his headphones and fell asleep again. When he woke up at night, it was already eight o’clock. There was no sound next door. Mo Xi got up and let the water run for a long time, but it was still cold. He didn’t want to wait anymore and went in directly for a cold shower.

Although it wasn’t as cold as winter, the temperature in late autumn was also chilling to the bone. Mo Xi sneezed several times in a row when he walked to the hospital entrance.

Fortunately, he asked the front desk for a blanket when he went out today, so he could cover himself when taking a nap at night.

Xiao Jun walked out of the ward to find the doctor. Meeting Mo Xi who had just arrived, he touched the tear stains at the corner of his eyes and pointed to the ward excitedly: “Your sister is awake, go quickly.”

Mo Xi walked quickly into the ward and saw Mo Zi lying on the bed with a pale face. Her face was several times more swollen than usual, and there were some tubes inserted into her body. His sister was usually such a confident and beauty-loving person. How did she become like this after giving birth?

Mo Xi’s nose soured, and he couldn’t hold back, his eyes turning red.

“Xiao Xi, come here.” Mo Zi’s body was still a bit weak, and her voice was feeble.

Mo Xi wiped his blurred vision, walked to Mo Zi’s bed and sat down, choking back a sob and calling out “Sis”.

“Don’t cry,” Mo Zi raised her swollen hand to touch him, revealing a smile, but there were tears in her eyes, “It’s okay now.”

Mo Xi held her hand, noticing that her entire palm was swollen and her fingers couldn’t close together. He asked with heartache: “Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll go buy it.”

“Your brother-in-law has already fed me. The doctor said I’ll be fine as long as I recuperate well. Don’t worry.” Mo Zi moved her body slightly, changed to a posture convenient for talking to Mo Xi, and asked him worriedly, “How is your school? Don’t delay your studies.”

Mo Xi waved his hand to comfort her: “It’s okay. I asked for two weeks of leave, and the school approved it quickly.”

American professors were always very open-minded about such things. After all, human life is paramount, and they didn’t lose anything.

However, the manager of his internship company was not very happy because he didn’t ask for leave in advance, and he left for two weeks, delaying a lot of work. Mo Xi was also helpless. His sister almost died; what else could he do? At worst, they could fire him.

After chatting briefly with Mo Zi, Mo Xi was afraid she would be too tired, so he let her rest early. He went back to the corridor and turned on his phone, seeing the text message Wan Tong replied to him: What a coincidence, I’m not in City X recently.

Mo Xi: Don’t you have to go to school?

Wan Tong: Oh, took leave. Hope your family matters are resolved smoothly~

Mo Xi: Alright, see you next time if there’s a chance.

Wan Tong: OK.

Putting down the phone, Mo Xi was slightly puzzled. Why was it so coincidental? Wan Tong wasn’t in City X as soon as he came back. Was he really not there or did he not want to see him?

Looking at Wan Tong’s brief reply, it didn’t seem like he was going to give him any explanation. Scrolling back the chat history to the part where he said he wanted to treat Wan Tong to a meal, Wan Tong seemed very hesitant and didn’t agree. If others were so reluctant, it wasn’t good for him to be too proactive.

Then let’s talk about it later.

When Pei Hao arrived at the hospital, Mo Xi was holding his computer doing homework. He leaned over to take a look. The screen was full of code, occasionally interspersed with some words he didn’t know. He could understand a little of the basic programming Mo Xi wrote before, but now these were simply Greek to him.

Pei Hao suddenly remembered a line from an American TV show: Smart is the new sexy. Mo Xi looked so damn handsome when he was thinking seriously!

He leaned close to Mo Xi’s ear and whispered: “I think you are particularly sexy right now.”

Mo Xi slapped the blanket on his chest, still staring intently at the computer, and replied expressionlessly: “Go to sleep quickly.”

For the next week, Pei Hao still came over every day without fail to watch over Mo Xi, even though he had work during the day and dinner parties at night, he never missed a day. Once or twice Mo Xi smelled a strong smell of alcohol on him and knew he went to drink with clients again.

When they were together, Pei Hao didn’t like tobacco or alcohol. Mo Xi couldn’t figure out one thing. With Pei Hao’s family background, why did he have to risk his health to please clients? But every time before he could ask, Pei Hao changed the subject casually.

He wanted to persuade Pei Hao to go home and rest well. Working during the day and guarding the hospital at night like this, no matter how good his body was, he couldn’t last long. But Pei Hao turned a deaf ear and still came to the hospital every day. Every time he stared at the computer, Pei Hao would prop up his face and gaze at him, his eyes full of pride and appreciation, until he was really too sleepy and fell asleep in a daze. The next morning he went home to take a shower and went to work again, as if nothing had happened.