The person who sneaked into Lin Fei's bedroom in the middle of the night had to be Liu Chunting.
She came to see Lin Fei either early in the morning or late at night. Firstly, she wanted to avoid running into Lin Fei's sister-in-law. Liu Chunting and Mo Xinlan didn't get along, snapping at each other on sight. It seemed Mo Xinlan just couldn't stand the sight of Liu Chunting. Secondly, Liu Jinshan was strongly opposed to his daughter interacting with Lin Fei, so she had to sneak around. For a young woman to constantly climb over walls in the middle of the night to keep company with a paralyzed man who was blind and bedridden on the kang was simply improper.
Yet Liu Chunting didn't care. That was just who she was: let people talk while she walked her own path. Even though gossip had long swirled around the village, Liu Chunting simply turned a deaf ear to it.
Lin Fei had once asked Mo Xinlan to put wooden bars back on the window, but Liu Chunting had come crying and making a scene, ending up in a huge shouting match with his sister-in-law. In the end, Lin Fei had run out of options and had to compromise, asking his sister-in-law to take the bars down again.
Liu Chunting had gone out this morning, spending the entire day hanging out with classmates, and didn't make it home until after dark. After grabbing a casual bite to eat, she waited for the dead of night and for her father to fall asleep, then brought the treats she had bought for Lin Fei to come see him. She still didn't know that the Lin Fei she had been longing for had already recovered.
"I'm saying, can you stop acting like a female bandit all the time? What does it look like if someone sees you!" Lin Fei scolded, lying motionless on the kang with a helpless tone.
"Hmph, so what if I'm a female bandit? This beauty is a flower-plucking bandit, hehe! No, wait, should be a grass-plucking bandit! Specifically plucking you, the village's prime blade of grass! Haha!" Liu Chunting giggled as she took off the small backpack from her back.
She spoke as softly as possible, worried about waking Mo Xinlan in the next room.
"Lin Fei, look how many good things I bought you! There's Dove chocolate, your favorite Countryside braised chicken necks, and pistachios..." Liu Chunting pulled a pile of snacks out of her backpack.
Seeing her like this, Lin Fei felt both touched and helpless. He didn't know how many times he had tried to persuade her; sometimes he even put on a cold front and cursed at her, but this girl was stubborn to a fault and nothing could make her leave him. Lin Fei had no idea what to do now.
"Come on, have a piece of chocolate first. This chocolate represents love—sweet, sweet love." With that, Liu Chunting used the faint moonlight shining through the window to unwrap a piece of chocolate, holding it between her slender fingers and bringing it to Lin Fei's lips.
Left with no choice, Lin Fei opened his mouth and ate it, otherwise it would have been too unfeeling. Although the room had no lights on, Lin Fei's vision now far exceeded that of an ordinary person. He could clearly see only happiness and bliss on Liu Chunting's face, with not a trace of disgust. Remembering Yang Qiulian, who had come to call off their engagement earlier that day, he couldn't help but sigh at how different people could be!
Lin Fei could tell that this Liu Chunting still had no idea he was well. However, if Liu Chunting suddenly found out he had recovered in the middle of the night like this, this girl would definitely make a huge fuss. If she woke up his sister-in-law next door, things would get lively. For all he knew, the whole neighborhood would find out, and a village scandal would be guaranteed. Therefore, Lin Fei had no choice but to keep pretending to be paralyzed and blind.
"Good? Sweet?" Liu Chunting asked, looking at Lin Fei with a smile.
"Mhm, it's sweet," Lin Fei nodded while chewing the chocolate.
"Oh right, I recently learned a set of massage and manipulation techniques online specifically for paralyzed patients. It's said to be really effective for recovery. Come on, let me try it on you."
As she spoke, Liu Chunting climbed right onto the kang, kneeling beside Lin Fei and reaching to pull back the thin sheet to give him a massage.
"Don't! No, no, no!" Lin Fei was startled and hurriedly stopped her.
In the middle of the night, letting a pretty young woman give him a full-body massage—wasn't that going to be the death of him? The crucial point was that Liu Chunting was head over heels in love with him; would she honestly just massage him? This girl already had a somewhat wild streak, and once she got her hands on him, Lin Fei wouldn't be able to keep up the act no matter how good his willpower was!
"What's wrong, scared I'll take advantage of you? You don't have any sensation in your body anyway, touching you is pretty much like touching a block of wood! Besides, I genuinely want to give you a massage, don't go having any dirty thoughts! Even if you did have dirty thoughts, you couldn't do a thing about it anyway, right? Hehehe!"
Liu Chunting rolled her eyes at Lin Fei, ignoring him completely as she pulled back the quilt and began the massage. Though her technique looked rather unpolished, it actually had some form to it, showing she had truly put effort into studying it.
Yet Lin Fei didn't dare move an inch at that moment, having to grit his teeth and bear it.
"Huh? Did you just move?" Liu Chunting suddenly felt something was off, because Lin Fei's body had given a distinct shudder.
"You... You... Ah..."