Chapter 2

Xiao Yu carried me straight into the ER of the city's best hospital.

Carried. That is the right word. I hadn't even found my feet before he was already talking to the doctor.

"She was hit by a car." He crouched and lifted my skirt hem again. "There's a scrape here. I don't know about the rest. Full workup."

"On it."

The doctor on intake had curly hair and mixed features. The face under the white coat looked like it had been torn out of a magazine.

Wen Jingxing. I learned the name later.

"Patient inside." He pushed the exam-room door open and tipped his chin at Xiao Yu. "Family waits outside."

Xiao Yu didn't move.

"Xiao." Wen Jingxing pushed his glasses up. "You sitting in on a gyn exam too?"

"What gyn—" My eyes went wide.

"Full workup." Xiao Yu's face didn't change. "Including gyn. Five years ago she—"

"Xiao Yu!"

I spun and clapped a hand over his mouth.

His mouth was against my palm. Warm. Soft.

I yanked back like I'd been burned. He caught my wrist. His thumb found my pulse and stayed there for a second.

I'm done.

It was pounding like a jackhammer.

"She had surgery five years ago," Xiao Yu went on, calm, like he was reading a chart. "Check for adhesions."

Wen Jingxing's gaze went between the two of us.

One circuit. That was all.

Then he smiled, eyes narrowing behind the lenses. "Got it. Patient inside."

There was something else in that look. I couldn't name it, and I didn't like it.

The exam was thorough.

Ridiculously thorough.

Wen Jingxing asked too much and checked too much. I lay on the table, staring at the surgical light, listening to my own heartbeat get louder in the quiet room.

Then he told me to lift my shirt.

When the swab crossed my lower belly, his hand paused.

A tiny pause. Small enough to be nothing.

I turned my head. He was looking at one spot. His face hadn't changed, but his lashes had dropped.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing." He flipped a page on the chart. The pen moved. "Old incision healed well."

My stomach dropped.

That was from Xiaoshuo.

Five years ago, Xiao Yu went overseas. I spent eleven hours in pain in a rental, then took a cab to the hospital by myself.

He didn't know.

He wasn't supposed to know.

X-rays. Bloodwork. A CT.

A scrape on the knee, run through the city's best hospital. It was almost funny.

Wen Jingxing stared at the report for two seconds. The corner of his mouth twitched. He swallowed the laugh.

"Well," he said, setting the papers down. "Looks like I have a sister-in-law."

He held out a hand. Nails cut short. He smelled like disinfectant.

"Wen Jingxing. Grew up with Xiao Yu. Came back from overseas five years ago. He brought someone here and asked me to open a fast track—" He tipped his head. "Five years. This is the first time."

"You talk too much." Xiao Yu was standing just behind my shoulder. His voice was stiff.

I still caught it. The tips of his ears were red.

"Good thing you got her here so fast." Wen Jingxing dropped the smile and looked at Xiao Yu, dead serious. "Any later—"

He paused.

"And that scrape would've scabbed over."

Then he ran for it, like he expected to get murdered on the spot. "I'm done. You two are nauseating. I have work."