The Road Home

Chapter 37

He brought Gui Xiao to a small inn in town.

While he was helping her unpack her luggage, he discovered a few bottles of medicine. Like she was presenting treasures, she explained each one to him. She was anemic; this one supplemented the blood, and then there were also vitamins. There was still one more bottle, which she did not provide a specific explanation for and was nebulous about. After hesitating for a long time, she at last informed him, "Since getting pregnant, I developed hypothyroidism... so I have no choice and have to take this to supplement. I asked the doctor what complications there might be. She said there is a small probability that it will affect the baby's intelligence and a certain probability that the baby will inherit hypothyroidism. The probability is really low, though. Don't be scared. I'm taking medication."

After saying all this, Gui Xiao was still worried. However, she had already thought through this very early on. Regardless of what the baby she gave birth to was like, the little one would nevertheless be her treasured darling.

As Lu Yanchen listened to her, he wanted to find a few words to comfort her, but yet he was also afraid that that would cause her to focus even more on this matter. Hence, he did not say anything. He sat down on the bedside chair and took out a knife from where it was kept by his waist, wanting to peel and cut some pineapple for her to eat. But on second thought, this knife had tasted human blood before and was not suitable for such a task, and so he put it away and headed downstairs. Borrowing a knife from the owner of the inn, he sliced up some pineapple until there was enough to fill a plate and then went back upstairs.

The entire time while Gui Xiao ate he wished to do something for her, but there was nothing he could do. When he saw that she had stopped after eating a few pieces, he soaked a towel in water until it was hot and then began to wipe her fingers clean for her. He went over each one very carefully, taking this task much more seriously than any time in the past when he had wiped down his gun.

Gui Xiao was leaning against his shoulder. As he waited on her like this, she felt her nose tingle. "Lu Chen... I've missed you. Did you miss me?"

Meaningless dialogue. All these years, this had never changed.

"Yes," Lu Yanchen answered her, and then left the room again.

"What are you going to go do now?' She had just managed to muster up a little bit of the right feeling.

"Going to get you some water so you can soak your feet." His voice drifted back in from beyond the door.

This sentence happened to fall onto the ears of Duan Rou, who was walking by, and she poked her head into the room to glance at Gui Xiao. "Sure enough, when looking for a husband, you need to find one who's handsome. The more handsome he is, the better his temper. Ugly men are all arrogant."

"... He doesn't have a good temper at all," Gui Xiao quietly countered. "When he was young, he was a little ruffian who could scare a load of people to death just by not saying a word."

The other party, though, did not believe her and, with a shake of her head, hightailed from there.

With these words from herself, those days of their youth once more rose up in Gui Xiao's memory. Pregnancy had turned her sentimental and melodramatic, and whether there was reason to or not, her mind would be filled with reflections of all sorts. Lu Yanchen came back with some hot water and placed her feet into it. Reaching her hand forward, she ran it over his buzz cut. "Massage my feet."

Lu Yanchen lifted his eyes and looked her over, a barely perceptible smile on his lips, but his hands were already complying with her instructions. What was more, the massage he gave felt pretty good.