Back Then, I Adored You

Gu Yusheng had taken off the blood-drenched shirt and thrown it randomly on the floor by the door.

On the coffee table was a steaming basin. Gu Yusheng, with his upper body naked, was standing by the sofa, bending over and washing himself with a towel.

Seeing that Gu Yusheng didn’t notice her, she stood by the door of the master bedroom secretly and stared at him in the guest room.

After wringing out the towel, he looked in the mirror and started wiping at the bloodstains on his body.

He couldn’t see his back or move easily with one shoulder wounded, so he just cleaned random patches.

He probably knew that he hadn’t cleaned that well, so he gave up after wiping his back with the towel painstakingly. He threw the towel into the basin, sat on the sofa, took a medicine bottle from the table, and sprayed the medicine powder on the wound on his shoulder.

For the places that he could see with his head turned back, he had managed to spray the powder on the right place, but as for the places he couldn’t see, he had just ended up spraying the powder on other places, like the sofa, although he probably could have reached the wound by looking in the mirror.

Qin Zhi’ai stared at him blankly for a while, then moved her gaze away.

She knew that Gu Yusheng loathed her, so she had been trying her best to keep away from him. She had no idea if he would yell at her and warn her to stop meddling if she tried to help him now.

But after she stared at the door of the master bedroom and pondered for a moment, she still chose to turn around and walk toward the guest bedroom.

She stepped softly, without any sound. Gu Yusheng noticed her when she was already standing behind him and abruptly turned his head to look at her.

She lowered her eyes subconsciously to escape from his sight.

Because she had never taken the initiative to approach him, she stammered a bit when she started talking to him. “I don’t have an alternative motive, I just-just want to help you…”

She pointed at his back, and after a short time, finished her words, “Apply the medicine.”

Silence was the response she received.

Qin Zhi’ai kept her head down, not looking at Gu Yusheng. She waited for him to say something for some time, but he didn’t say anything. When she was ready to ask him whether she should ask the housekeeper to help him if he was unwilling to let her help, he reached out his hand slowly and handed the medicine bottle to her.

Qin Zhi’ai raised her head to look at him, shocked, then lowered her eyes quickly, took the medicine bottle, and walked behind him.

It was quiet in the room, and no conversation was made between them.

Qin Zhi’ai paid all her attention to Gu Yusheng’s wound.

Gu Yusheng sat there with his head down for a while. He seemed a bit tired sitting in that position, so he moved slightly to get more comfortable. While doing that, he happened to see in the mirror that Qin Zhi’ai was standing behind him and applying the medicine powder onto the wound on his back in silence.

He gazed at her for a while, then remembered what she had said to him gingerly when she had just come into the room—”I don’t have an alternative motive, I just-just want to help you… apply the medicine.”

She said that she had no alternative motive, does that mean she’s explaining that she didn’t mean to badger me?

She chose to explain at the first sight of me. Just how terrified is she of making me angry?

Gu Yusheng became uncomfortable, first mentally and then physically. He wanted to smoke, but when he touched the cigarette case, he stopped all of a sudden. He withdrew his hand and turned his head to look at the sparkling sunlight coming in from the window.