Gu Nianzhi was stunned. She remembered the time when He Zhichu and Huo Shaoheng had a brutal fight in her house. Reinitz was not as strong a combatant as Huo Shaoheng, so of course, it didn’t take He Zhichu much effort to fight him.
Gu Nianzhi’s large eyes swiveled between He Zhichu and Reinitz. He Zhichu’s tone and choice of words made it seem like the two of them knew each other. He Zhichu’s tone especially suggested that they were acquainted. All sorts of thoughts were forming in her head, but before they could expand, He Zhichu had already pulled her towards him, torn off the German military jacket she wore, and thrown it back to Reinitz. Then, he took off his own cashmere coat and put it on Gu Nianzhi. Gu Nianzhi instantly felt warmer. She smiled apologetically at Reinitz. “Sorry, I’m leaving now. Good night Major General Reinitz.”
Reinitz had his military coat in his arms. He looked at He Zhichu with his eyebrows drawn together and had a gloomy expression on his face. Since he had been punched for no reason at all, he appeared sullen and aggrieved. The guard standing at the gate of the building was motionless and had an impassive expression on his face, as if he had not witnessed the entire situation.
Initially, He Zhichu pointed his finger in Reinitz’s direction and opened his mouth as if to say something, but he stopped himself and clamped his mouth shut. Then he snorted indifferently and holding Gu Nianzhi’s arm, they walked down the steps of the building together.
“My car is parked outside. Tonight, you will go with me to my place.” He Zhichu did not even bother to look at Gu Nianzhi when he spoke, and he was obviously in a very sulky mood as well.
Gu Nianzhi was speechless, but at that moment, she just wanted to go home. She said in a gentle tone, “Professor He, it’s already past ten o’clock. I want to go back to my own place.” After worrying that he still wouldn’t agree, she hurriedly added, “I’m feeling a little sick. Really, I left the premises early today because I felt unwell.”
He Zhichu put his hand to her forehead to check her temperature, and he discovered that her forehead was hot to the touch. This discovery made him even more insistent. “Go to my house. If you continue to have a fever into the night, someone needs to take care of you.”
“I can go to Brother Chen,” Gu Nianzhi blurted out, but immediately thought of how Chen Lie was likely at the headquarters of the Special Operations Forces, and then thought about how the headquarters of the Special Operations Forces had recently been heavily inspected, and no outsiders were allowed to enter. Since Huo Shaoheng wasn’t there, it would be difficult for her to go there.
Gu Nianzhi hadn’t even finished thinking of excuses when He Zhichu stopped her midway. “Chen Lie? Enough of this nonsense. Stay at my house for one night. Are you afraid of making Huo Shaoheng unhappy? Then let him stop working!” He raised his pitch at the end of the sentence, and Gu Nianzhi could tell how terrible his mood was.
She didn’t dare to continue arguing with him, so she merely replied sheepishly, “It’s not that I’m worried that Huo Shao will not be happy, but I’m just worried about troubling Professor He…”
“How can you trouble me when you don’t even feel uncomfortable wearing a stranger’s jacket?” When he was in a bad mood, his tone could become sardonic and biting. Gu Nianzhi decided to stop talking lest she add fuel to the fire and further enrage him. She obediently followed He Zhichu into the car, and he drove in the direction of B University’s Professor’s Building. He Zhichu’s car was a high-performance vehicle as well as being fast and steady, yet it didn’t have the roaring sound unique to sports cars.
They soon arrived at B University. Gu Nianzhi saw the female graduate student dormitory in the law department where she had lived. She squeezed the cell phone in her hand and had the urge to call Ma Qiqi. However, when she looked at the clock and discovered that it was already 11 o’clock, she changed her mind and decided not to bother her so late in the evening.
She followed He Zhichu into his suite in the Professor’s Building. He Zhichu pointed to the guest room. “You will sleep there. The toiletries in the bathroom are new. I have some of your clothing here, so you can change your clothes.”
Gu Nianzhi wasn’t sure what to say. She was silent for a while, then she asked, “Professor He, why do you have my clothes here?”
He Zhichu turned his head a little uncomfortably at first. “I bought them earlier, but I didn’t know if I should’ve given them to you or not…”
Gu Nianzhi laughed and didn’t make any excuses to refuse. She rubbed her increasingly hot forehead and said almost incoherently, “Thank you, Professor He.” She knew this place well, since she had been coming in and out over the previous year, although as a student assistant. She went to the bathroom to wash.
After she walked out, she discovered that He Zhichu had already put her robe and change of clothes on the bed in the guest room. Gu Nianzhi yawned, put on her robe, and tried to fall asleep. However, because of all the chaotic events that had gone down that day, she suffered insomnia and twisted and turned while trying to sleep.
When He Zhichu came over to check on her condition in the middle of the night, he found her face flushed, as if she were experiencing a nightmare. She was raving and murmuring incoherently. He Zhichu reached out to touch her forehead and found that it was scorching hot.
He took out his first aid kit, removed the electronic thermometer from it, and pressed it to Gu Nianzhi’s forehead. The high temperature on the thermometer stunned He Zhichu. He calmly reset the thermometer’s temperature and pulled the quilted covers over Gu Nianzhi. Then he put an ice pack on her forehead to cool her down for a while.
As he stayed by her side, Gu Nianzhi’s eyebrows started furrowing even more. “Daddy… Daddy… I want Daddy…” She made a humming sound as she wept, and her hands kept poking out of the quilt to thrash into the air.
He Zhichu’s heart trembled, and he grabbed her hand and placed it back under the quilt. Gu Nianzhi wept and sobbed for a while as she dreamed, perhaps sensing He Zhichu’s presence, and after a while, she started stammering “Brother…” Her tone and voice sounded exactly like they had when she was a little girl.
He felt his nose twitch and mood sour. His hands trembled, and touching Gu Nianzhi’s head, he spoke to her in a gentle tone that he had never used before. “He is here, he’s not going anywhere, he will always be with you.”
His appeasement gradually began to work, and Gu Nianzhi eventually ceased crying while dreaming. Although she was still clenching her teeth, and her brows were tightly drawn together, she was no longer crying hysterically like she previously had been. It seemed as if she had gained dominance over her dream and no longer found its contents unbearable.
He Zhichu stayed by her side watching her, and from time to time he changed the ice pack on her forehead. After a while, Gu Nianzhi’s phone suddenly started ringing. “Who used a bow and arrow to fight in the priest temple? I like how you only belong to me in the crowd…” He Zhichu had heard this ringtone before. It was the ringtone Gu Nianzhi set for Huo Shaoheng’s phone calls.
He Zhichu glanced around the room before finally locating the phone. Seeing that the caller ID displayed on the mobile screen was “A,” He Zhichu pursed his lips and answered the call.
“Nianzhi, where are you?” Huo Shaoheng’s deep magnetic voice came from the phone, but there was a slightly anxious edge to his voice.
He Zhichu’s eyes flickered, and he said slowly, “At my place.”
