Gu Junyan knew that she had always been thin-skinned, so he reined in the playful glint in his eyes. "All right, I won't tease you anymore. I know that's not what you meant. It's getting late, let's go down and eat."
Su Nuohan allowed herself to be pulled along, but looking at the corners of Gu Junyan's lips which had yet to drop, she felt a mixture of embarrassment and indignation. "What are you smiling at?"
She shouldn't have asked. At her question, the curve of the man's mouth only grew wider, and he even chuckled aloud.
……
"Gu Junyan, you are not allowed to laugh! You're still laughing... I said no laughing..."
Su Nuohan sat on the stool, watching the man's shoulders twitching continuously, and frowning, she raised her voice by several octaves. "Stop laughing!"
……
"Heh heh heh..."
Seeing that Gu Junyan had been smiling since just now, Auntie Yun was also very pleased. As she arranged the dishes on the table, she chimed in, "The master is in a good mood today."
Gu Junyan had barely nodded and before he could speak, his mouth was plugged by a pair of soft, boneless hands.
"Auntie Yun, it's getting late, you should go get your dinner too."
"Oh, well then, Madam, I'll go eat first. Just call if you need anything."
After Auntie Yun left, Su Nuohan finally let go of her hand, returned to her seat, and glared at the man beside her.
Gu Junyan coughed lightly into his clenched fist, then scooped a spoonful of porridge and held it right before Su Nuohan's pouting little mouth. "Be a good girl, open wide. You need to eat your fill so your body can heal faster."
Though Su Nuohan still didn't look pleased, she parted her lips and swallowed the porridge. Angry or not, she still had to eat.
"Only when your body is well will you have the energy to... make little monkeys!"
Cough, cough, cough—
Su Nuohan shook off the hand resting on her back, her eyes shooting sparks. "Gu—Jun—yan!"
Fearing she might actually flip the dining table, the man finally reined in the smile on his face.
Looking at the bowl of porridge before her, Su Nuohan snatched the spoon right out of Gu Junyan's hand, and while glaring at the man whose eyes clearly held a hint of amusement, she scooped up a large spoonful and ate it.
Gu Junyan raised an eyebrow, picked up his own bowl of porridge, and began to eat with graceful ease.
Watching a man who could look so elegant even while eating porridge, Su Nuohan muttered softly, "You aren't even hurt, why are you drinking porridge?"
Gu Junyan simply gave a bland reply that he wanted a change of pace.
Su Nuohan pouted. A change of pace, my foot! Was it really that hard to just say he wanted to keep her company while she drank porridge?
After the meal, Su Nuohan watched the man follow her right into the bathroom, speechless for a moment.
"Gu Junyan, get out. I'm going to take a bath."
"Your wound cannot get wet."
"I'll use the bathtub."
Gu Junyan raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain you can finish your bath with one hand and then get dressed? Can you guarantee your hand won't touch the water at all? Doctor Sun specifically said that if your wound doesn't heal properly, it will affect your writing in the future."
Su Nuohan looked at her hand, still reluctant to compromise. "Then I won't wash."
Gu Junyan very cooperatively stepped aside and made way for her. "Don't come crying and begging me to give you a bath later when you can't fall asleep."
Su Nuohan took a deep breath. Yes, she had a bit of a germ phobia—quite a severe one, actually. If she went to bed without bathing, she wouldn't be able to sleep a wink. Besides, she had spent so much time sitting right next to Su Yue'er today that she felt as though Su Yue'er's cloying perfume had clung all over her; she had no intention of sleeping like this.
Seeing Su Nuohan standing there with a flushed face, wrestling with her dilemma, Gu Junyan simply scooped her up, carried her over to sit on the edge of the bathtub, and began filling the tub with water.
"The parts of you that should and shouldn't have been seen were all seen that night. What is there left to be shy about?"
Su Nuohan muttered softly, "That's different."
Gu Junyan raised an eyebrow. "How is it different?"
Su Nuohan bit her lip. Back then, she had still been repulsed by him, but now... letting him give her a bath was just too mortifying.
Half an hour later, Su Nuohan sat on the sofa, watching Gu Junyan approach with a hair dryer in hand, her face burning red down to the roots of her ears.
When he said bath, he literally meant just bathing, and he had washed her with agonizing thoroughness, leaving not a single corner untouched...
"Gu Junyan, your bathing skills... leave a lot to be desired."
Su Nuohan deliberately put extra emphasis on the last few words, holding it against him for taking advantage of her under the guise of giving her a bath just now.
Gu Junyan's fingers wove through her soft hair, and catching her sly gaze, he turned off the hair dryer and lightly hooked her chin with his index finger. "Then why did Madam Gu seem... to enjoy it so much?"
Seeing him deliberately mimicking her tone and bearing down hard on those final syllables, Su Nuohan shoved him away and scrambled straight onto the bed.
Su Nuohan, you really have no backbone!
Taking advantage of the time Gu Junyan was still in the bathroom, Su Nuohan felt bored and picked up her phone. The moment she opened WeChat, she was hit by a barrage of messages.
Jiang Guoguo: "Su Nuohan, where the hell did you die? You haven't replied to messages in three days?"
Jiang Guoguo: "Reply the moment you see this."
……
Su Nuohan tapped on the final voice message, and a second later, Jiang Guoguo's booming, furious voice rang out: "Su Nuohan, if you don't show up with a message, we are through! Done for—!"
Hearing that familiar voice, Su Nuohan fell into a momentary trance. In her past life, Jiang Guoguo had always tried to persuade her to tone it down, telling her that marrying Gu Junyan was the greatest stroke of good fortune she could have ever asked for. Not only had she refused to listen, but she had even suspected that Jiang Guoguo and Gu Junyan were in cahoots, leading her to cut ties and ignore her for an entire year.
Later, when she finally got news of Jiang Guoguo, it was word of her death. The Jiang family had fallen into ruin, and Jiang Guoguo had been killed in a car accident while being hounded by debt collectors...
Su Nuohan opened her contacts, and the phone barely rang once before the other end picked up.
"Su Nuohan, what on earth is wrong with you, dead girl? Three whole days without returning a call or sending a single message..."
Su Nuohan held the phone a little further from her ear, rubbed it to soothe the ache, and finally spoke into the receiver. "Guoguo, don't be mad anymore. I... I didn't reply because I got hurt."
Sure enough, the moment Jiang Guoguo heard she was injured, her tone softened considerably, though her words remained as sharp and mocking as ever: "What, did you go looking for trouble again?"
Ugh—
Su Nuohan looked down at her own wrist, feeling a little guilty.
"Well? Where were you hurt, is it serious? Do you want me to have a word with Gu Junyan tomorrow and come over to Tianyi Garden to see you?"
Su Nuohan wanted to see Jiang Guoguo too, and spoke immediately. "I'll come find you tomorrow. Let's meet at our usual spot."
"Gu Junyan is actually letting you out of Tianyi Garden?"
Su Nuohan answered with a smile, "Not only can I leave Tianyi Garden, but from now on I can go wherever I want!"
On the other end of the line, Jiang Guoguo was stunned silent for a long moment before speaking. "Nuonuo, did you threaten Gu Junyan again?"
Su Nuohan raised an eyebrow, and listening to the sound of running water from the bathroom, a smile bloomed on her face. "Guoguo, I've figured things out. From now on, I'm going to live a proper life with him! I'm never running away again!"
"Did you... take the wrong medicine?"
"No."
"Did Gu Junyan threaten you?"
"No to that, either. I'm being completely serious."
Though Jiang Guoguo was shocked as to why Su Nuohan had suddenly changed her mind, the tone didn't sound like she was joking, and from the bottom of her heart, she was happy for her.
Even as an outsider, she could tell that Gu Junyan's feelings for Su Nuohan were genuine. Now that Nuonuo had figured it out on her own, it was for the best—it saved her from worrying day and night. Otherwise, she really used to fear that Su Nuohan would one day push Gu Junyan past his breaking point, leaving Su Nuohan to suffer in the end.
"Would you call this turning over a new leaf? Oh wait, a prodigal daughter returning to the fold?"
Su Nuohan's mouth twitched slightly. Whether in her past life or the present, Jiang Guoguo had always been this unfiltered.