She turned to Guoguo with a reassuring smile and said softly, “You can go take a break first.”
Guoguo quickly nodded, passed the items that she’d brought to Xu Wennuan, and fled without even bothering to say goodbye to Lu Bancheng. Xu Wennuan bent down and picked up the pillow on the floor before she stepped into the room.
The doctor, who had been standing by the side and witnessing the strange occurrence among the three of them, politely excused himself to check on his other patients and then hurriedly left the room. After he closed the door, the atmosphere in the room became even more strange.
Xu Wennuan pretended not to notice how Lu Bancheng was staring fixedly at her. She first carried the clothes and breakfast to the table then brushed off the floor debris from the pillow. She walked over to his bed, propped his body up, and stuffed the pillow behind his back to make him more comfortable.
After adjusting the pillow, she arranged the breakfast on the table by the bed and then dragged a chair to his bedside and sat down to stir the porridge twice with the spoon. She scooped up a spoonful and brought it up to Lu Bancheng’s lips.
Lu Bancheng had not said a word as he watched Xu Wennuan without blinking his eyes and remained silent with the spoon at his mouth. Xu Wennuan moved the spoon closer to his lips, and when she realized that he showed no signs of eating, she said, “Have your breakfast first. We’ll talk about it after you’ve eaten.”
Lu Bancheng continued to give no response.
Xu Wennuan didn’t move the spoon away, and she continued to speak, “I don’t expect this to be a short conversation. I haven’t had breakfast yet either, so let’s both eat something first, and then we’ll have the energy to chat, okay?”
Lu Bancheng swallowed twice but showed no sign of opening his mouth to eat. The scenario was that of a standoff, and, just when Xu Wennuan’s hand began to ache from steadily holding up the spoon to his lips, Lu Bancheng’s eyelashes fluttered lightly, and he broke the silence. “Leave, Nuannuan.”
Xu Wennuan lowered her head, retracted the spoon, and placed it back in the bowl. She then placed the bowl on the table and, ignoring what he had said, said, “Alright then. Let’s chat first before we eat.”
“Nuannuan, you would not have a good life with me. Leave.” Lu Bancheng repeated his request, but again Xu Wennuan ignored what he’d said and reached out her arm to grab his cell phone beside his pillow. She then grabbed his thumb with her other hand and pressed it on the biometric sensor, unlocking his phone. She scrolled twice across the screen and tapped the game they had played together. She then turned the screen around and looked back at Lu Bancheng. “Actually, I eavesdropped on your conversation with Wu Hao in Lijiang. And ever since then, I’ve known that you are Zero, the man I wanted to meet in real life.”
“Nuannuan, I’m no longer the Lu Bancheng from back then. Regardless of what Guoguo told you, forget about it.”
“At that point in time, I had no idea why I wanted to meet Zero in real life. It was just like how I could not understand why I didn’t hate Zero after I knew that you were him and that I clearly abhorred and hated you. Instead, I constantly wanted to call you and, when Xiao’ ai told me that you were going to stay in America permanently, I even walked to the foot of your office building in stilettos in the middle of the night like a fool.”
