He came out of that car. I didn't expect him to be here at this moment. He really shocked me by being here at this hour. He just covered the distance between us within two long, big steps of his legs. The bus which arrived there at that time went off from there. We didn't take that bus, but what else could be the reason for him being here? I really don't know. Did anyone tell him that I am here, or did he just come here by coincidence? A lot of questions gathered in my mind, confusing and puzzling me, but the answer I was searching for was nowhere.
"What are you doing here at this hour of night?" he asked me in his very cold voice.
I got numbed for a moment and didn't know what to answer. His sudden appearance shocked me. It's not like I was doing something wrong and he caught me, but it's just that he shocked me with his presence here at this time.
"Actually… I mean… we are here for a meal," I said to him.
He exhaled sharply and said while looking at me, "Isn't there any other time to get a meal? Why this late in the night? You know very well that your dormitory gets closed, but still you are roaming around the roads at night just to have a meal with somebody. Isn't it quite foolish?" he asked me.
This is the first time when Yuan is scolding me. He never did that. Is it because I am having the meal with Ji Juan, or is it really because I pissed him off very much? I really don't know what he is thinking in his mind, but I am lost every time in my own thoughts while talking to him right now.
Then I took a deep breath and said, "Yuan, Mr Ji Juan was quite hungry after the shoot, and I already owe him a meal, so he wanted that meal today. So we just got over here," I said to him.
"Oh really? So now you have started owing meals to strangers on the very first day of meeting. Quite impressive, Zhao Shiza, quite impressive," he said to me.
Zhao Shiza. He used to call me by my full name when we met for the first time, but after that he never called me like that. But today he called me Zhao Shiza. It seems like I am back to day one of meeting him.
"Do you know that at this late hour, in the cold chilling winter, you might catch a cold?" he said to me.
I looked down at the ground and said, "Mr Xu Yuan, you don't need to bother about me. I am a grown-up adult. I know what I am doing, and I take full responsibility for that and bear the consequences," I said to him.
"I am seeing this so-called grown-up adult, how you are taking care of everything you do," he said in a quiet sarcastic tone.
Then Ji Juan laughed behind me, and his laugh made Yuan more pissed off.
"Is there any joke I cracked just now, that's why you are laughing so shamelessly here?" he asked Ji Juan.
Ji Juan said while controlling his laugh, "No, no, it seems like you are some professor who is scolding the most innocent girl of the class for not completing her assignment on time. It really seems quite funny," he said.
And as I expected, it made Yuan more angry at him, and he said to Ji Juan, "Yes, if that's so, then you are the one who is spoiling my student," he said straight to him.
"Come with me," he grabbed my wrist and took me towards his car, but the moment he did that, while holding my hand in his, I lost my balance a little because of that sprain in my ankle.
"Be careful, Miss Zhao," Ji Juan said to me in a quiet worrying tone.
After hearing Ji Juan's voice from the back, Yuan stopped and looked back at me. First he saw my face, then his eyes went down, and he saw my left foot which had become quite swollen at the ankle. His eyes immediately changed. The anger which had fully captivated his eyes just a minute before now completely turned into worry about me.
"What the hell did you do to yourself?" he asked me.
"I… I was… I mean… I twisted my ankle. It's nothing big, I'll handle it," I said to him.
"Handle it?" he repeated. "Yes, I am seeing how nicely you are handling it. What did you do to yourself? When I am not around you, you are literally a baby. If I get off work for some reason, does that mean you won't be careful about yourself and won't take care of yourself and let these kinds of things happen to you? Did it really mean that?"
He bent down on his knees and touched my ankle with his hand. His expression changed while seeing it closely, like it's not mine—it's his ankle that got twisted and he is feeling that pain. He closed his eyes tightly after seeing it and said, "Is it hurting you very much?" he asked me.
"It hurts whenever I walk or run faster," I said to him.
Then within a second, he stood up, and I didn't even realise it. He just lifted me off the ground and carried me on his back. This is the second or third time he lifted me like this. The first was when I was drunk that night, the second was when I was admitted to the hospital, and now it's today.
"Yuan, put me down. Don't hurt yourself while holding me like this," I said to him.
He looked at me—he really looked at me—and said, "How weak do you think I am, hmm?" he asked me.
I didn't say anything because I didn't have any answer. I just looked down at the ground.
"Don't worry about me. I can balance you and your weight with one hand. 47.5 kg is not a high weight for me to carry, with the height of five feet one inch," he said.
Is he indirectly making fun of my height?
"I am five feet five inches, you got it wrong," I said to him.
He smiled a little after a long time since he appeared here and said, "Yes, sure, of course you are five feet five inches tall, but if I see you from an acute angle," he said to me.
"Yuan," I said.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just put me down. What will Ji Juan think? Put me down right now," I said to him.
"Do you really think that in this condition I will let you walk on the ground? Never. You are off from walking on the ground for a few days," he said.
"So are you going to carry me like this the whole time? What if it doesn't get better for a few days?" I asked him.
He tightened his grip on me while holding me so that I didn't slip from his back and said, "Then I'll carry you like this for years, no matter how long I have to. I will."
I hid my face in his back. I am quite tired—not from work, but from the emotional ups and downs I am feeling today.
He reached the car and gently, very carefully, put me down on the seat and placed the seat belt on me, like carrying something very sacred, like he always does. Then he closed the door on my side and came inside the car, sat on the driver's seat, started the car, and drove off.
I didn't even say a proper goodbye to Ji Juan. He was still standing there. I was the one who made him come over here without his car and wanted to make him experience the bus, but now at the end, I am the one who got into the car and Ji Juan was left there only. It was the last bus, and we already missed it because of Yuan. Now how will he be able to go back home at this late hour? Will he get a cab?
Then Yuan said to me while driving the car, "Don't bother about him. He'll get home by himself. His feet are totally alright. If he doesn't even get a cab, he can walk back to his home. Think about yourself first. You are the one who is injured right now. You are the fragile one, not him," he said.
"How do you even know what I was thinking? I didn't even say a word. Then how do you know that?" I asked him.
"I think you have forgotten that your Mr Heart is connected to my heart. It's linked to each other. Even if you don't say a word, I can still know what's going on in your little mind. You always think about others before yourself. Then who will think about you? I have to. I really have to. See, today I left you for a few hours without my guidance and proper care, and look what you have done to yourself. You ended up hurting yourself," he said in a quiet worrying tone.
"It's a normal thing. Everyone gets hurt every second moment in the whole world. Stop behaving like—" I didn't even get to complete my sentence and he said,
"But you are not allowed to hurt my girlfriend. You are not allowed to do that with her. She is mine, and I can't let my girlfriend hurt herself," he said.
But what about today? The way he upset me with his performance in the Spring Festival Gala—he didn't even tell me about it. I found it out by myself on Weibo. The way he performed so passionately with that actress, the way he talked to her behind the scenes in that video, the way he pulled her closer while performing. I know it's part of an act, but still my Mr Heart is not understanding it, and it's making me feel so jealous. I know I don't have to feel this way. I know my Yuan is such a big actor in the C-drama industry. He is busy with work and promotions all the time. I know this requires actresses. I mean, he will do his next show with another beautiful actress, more than me. It's his career. I can't interfere in that. After all, who am I? I am just an ordinary fangirl of him at the end of the day. I can't stop his growth and success because of my foolish and childish insecurities.
I didn't even let him know about this, because if I do, then it will definitely affect his work, and I really don't want to become a barrier to his success. I always want my Yuan Yuan to shine, just like a shining star forever in the sky—shining every time and gathering all the attention with its shine. I want him to shine and spread his brightness everywhere.
I didn't say these things to him. I just thought about all these things in my mind while he was driving very focused. Then we reached my dormitory. The car stopped. He looked at me and said, while I was about to step out of the car, "Silly girl."
I turned my face back towards him, and he continued…