Early the next morning, amidst the sound of a turning door lock, Shasha opened her sleepy eyes and woke up. She raised her head slightly from the soft pillow. When she clearly saw the person walking through the door, she couldn't help feeling a trace of disappointment.
A well-preserved, gentle-mannered middle-aged woman was carrying an insulated food box, followed by a middle-aged man. Seeing that she was awake, the two walked over to the bedside.
"Shasha, get up and drink some oatmeal."
The middle-aged woman opened the food box for Shasha, releasing a fragrant aroma mixed with milk and nuts. The visitors were none other than Mom Sun and Dad Sun. Although their daughter kept telling them on the phone that everything was fine, they were still worried and had flown here from China last week.
Shasha smiled sweetly. "Thanks, Mom. This tastes just like it did when I was little. Give me a moment." Then she got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Watching her daughter limp slowly toward the bathroom, her right leg clearly unable to muster any strength, Mom Sun burst into tears behind her. She quickly wiped them away with her hand; she couldn't let her daughter see.
Shasha wouldn't let them help, insisting on doing everything herself. She told them this was all part of the normal recovery process, and every day she stubbornly followed the doctor's instructions for rehabilitation. Wherever she could manage on her own, she tried her best not to rely on the wheelchair. Shasha was stronger than anyone, and she desperately hoped to recover as soon as possible and return to the competitive arena.
"Did you see Xiao Wang yesterday? He said last night he was coming to see you." Dad Sun unpacked a bag of snacks for his daughter, placing them within reach of Shasha's hand, and asked the question.
Shasha didn't speak, instead fiddling with a palm-sized plush toy shaped like a little shark. The peculiar thing was that the shark's mouth was biting down on a dog's head. She had just discovered it beside her pillow; it hadn't been there when she went to sleep last night.
Seeing that his daughter didn't reply, Dad Sun sighed inwardly. It seemed the young couple still hadn't made up.
Xiao Wang didn't look like a fool, so why couldn't he even speak properly? Could it be that he did something to wrong Shasha? That must be why his daughter was acting so unusual. No, later he was going to interrogate this kid properly. If he really did something to break his daughter's heart, he would break this kid's legs today!
Before Dad Sun could decide whether to break Wang Chuqin's left leg or right leg, the room door was pushed open again.
He wore a gray hooded coat with a black-and-white vertical striped top underneath. His long legs, wrapped in tight black pants, looked even taller and more slender. More striking than his handsome exterior was the sharp, profound aura radiating from his entire being.
The moment Wang Chuqin pushed the door open, he saw the girl in bed looking at him with a stunned expression. Before he could feel secretly pleased in his heart, he saw Dad Sun glaring at him as if he wanted to eat him alive. Mom Sun, meanwhile, was looking at him with an expectant expression.
What happened? He had just arrived and hadn't done anything yet.
"Shasha," he flashed a gentle smile at the girl. He wanted to ask why she had been crying yesterday, but with both Dad Sun and Mom Sun around, it probably wasn't a good time.
"What are you here for?" The girl had already put away her previous lovestruck daze, her expression calm as she picked up the iPad by the bedside. Her attitude clearly meant: I'm busy right now, so say whatever you have to say quickly.
Every single member of the National Table Tennis Team possessed the skill of "face-changing." Having spent years tempering herself in competitions, Shasha could be an eight-year-old girl flashing a wild, carefree grin off the court one second, and the very next second transform instantly into the serious, imposing, sharp-as-a-blade "Bureau Chief Sha." Her "face-changing technique" had been perfected to a supreme, grandmaster level.
Mom Sun watched the awkward tension between the two of them, shot Dad Sun a look, and dragged the reluctant Dad Sun out of the room, leaving space for the two of them to be alone.
Wang Chuqin looked at the little figure on the bed. Her plump little hands were poking at the iPad screen, making her look like an oversized snow doll. Why was she so endlessly cute... Every time his girlfriend's cuteness overwhelmed him, Wang Chuqin had to recite a calming mantra in his heart a few times.
Seeing that Shasha was ignoring him, he cautiously strolled over, leaned his head in close, and tried to butter her up. "Shasha, what are you looking at?"
No one answered him.
"Oh, the competition videos from this year's Asian Championships? I just watched this a few days ago, let me tell you..." It didn't matter if no one answered; as long as she didn't chase him away, it was fine.
As someone with years of rich experience in making Shasha angry, this particular guy had plenty of tactics for coaxing her, the most effective of which was sticking close to her shamelessly. Before he knew it, he had climbed onto Shasha's bed, sitting right up against the girl, one hand propped behind Shasha's back while a finger pointed at the screen in her hands as he chattered away, expressing his insights about the video.
Sitting extremely close, he could even feel the other person's body temperature. Involuntarily, Shasha thought back to last night—to that lingering, soul-stirring kiss in the moonlight. Her expression remained unchanged, but her ears gradually turned red.