He is Lovestruck in the Revenge-Chapter 45 - 044 Xie Shang you must be obedient

Chapter 45: 044: Xie Shang, you must be obedient.

Chapter 45: 044: Xie Shang, you must be obedient.

If he asked, she would definitely tell him, yes, she was a bad person too.

She picked up the jar of alcohol and poured herself a full cup, her first drink of the evening.

As her fingers touched the cup, Xie Shang grabbed her wrist. It was then that he was like the man from the Jhiang family gambling table, aggression and oppressive force churning in his eyes at that moment, “Tell me.”

She moved neither her hands nor her expression.

Even a drunk Xie Shang was not easy to deal with.

Wen Changling calmly reciprocated the grip on Xie Shang’s hand, gently pushing him away while her gaze remained clear and sober, kindly reminding him, “Xie Shang, you’re breaking the rules.”

She could refuse to answer; that was one of the game’s rules.

She finished the rest of the drink without changing her expression.

*****

He Dongzhou arrived at the research lab at nine in the morning, to find Xie Shang already there, wearing a white lab coat. The experimental bench was strewn with vessels and jars filled with various spices, and the room was kept at a very low temperature, where Xie Shang was—catching up on sleep.

The moment the door was pushed open, Xie Shang opened his eyes.

He Dongzhou asked him, “Why do you look like that?”

The complexion of Xie Shang’s face was abnormally pale, “Drank too much last night.”

A hangover, which was odd.

He Dongzhou was curious, “Who were you drinking with?”

The aftereffects of last night’s alcohol were strong, and his stomach was still burning. Speaking without much energy and rather indifferently, Xie Shang replied, “Someone you don’t know.”

“A neighbor?”

Xie Shang didn’t answer.

That meant he had guessed correctly. It wasn’t difficult to guess; He Dongzhou’s social circle highly overlapped with Xie Shang’s. The people he didn’t know, yet could cause Xie Shang to have a hangover, could only be that special female neighbor from the other time.

“So, were you in a really good mood, or a really bad one?” He Dongzhou inquired.

Xie Shang preferred tea over alcohol.

He seldom drank, and his tolerance was quite average—with hard liquor, he could only manage four or five small cups. He didn’t flush when he drank, and he didn’t cause trouble when drunk. He disliked getting drunk because he hated losing control and wanted to remain lucid at all times. Only when he was in a very good or very bad mood would he indulge in enough alcohol to get drunk.

“Don’t know,” was Xie Shang’s response.

He Dongzhou felt Xie Shang had been acting unusually lately, “Don’t know?”

“Yeah.”

It seemed that since the gambling game, it was Wen Changling who had been taking the lead. After sobering up, Xie Shang could not clearly remember his mood from that time. What remained most vivid in his memory was when his consciousness became fleeting, Wen Changling looked over him, her voice sounding like an enchantment drifting from afar.

“Xie Shang,” she said as she bent down, her hair sweeping over his hand.

He responded.

“Can you walk?”

The aftereffects of the alcohol were already kicking in. He lay his head on the empty jar he had drunk from, his eyes gazing off into the far and high places, searching for the stars of the night.

Quiet and untroublesome, he was still easy to care for when drunk.

Wen Changling stood up, “Give me your hand.”

He extended his hand to her, the bones beautifully sculpted, illuminated by the moonlight into a slightly translucent pearly white. His mind was foggy, and his actions followed his instincts.

Just like he had done before, Wen Changling took hold of his wrist through his clothing and guided him back to the pawnshop. His coat, draped over her arm, kept dragging on the ground, so she said, “Xie Shang, hold on to it.”

He scrunched the coat into a ball, this time holding it properly.

Wen Changling had led him to the front door of the pawnshop.

With the last bit of his consciousness, he stubbornly asked once more, “What are your criteria for choosing a spouse?”

The game was over, and Wen Changling was under no obligation to answer his question anymore.

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She said, “Must be obedient.”

Xie Shang’s reaction was much slower than when he was sober, and as he pondered whether those three words were a command or a standard, he heard Wen Changling say again, “Bow your head.”

All of his thoughts halted, and in front of her, he bowed his head, unsure if it was enough, he lowered it a bit more. Perhaps because his brain was numbed by alcohol, he was like a puppet on strings controlled by Wen Changling, and obedience had become an instinct.

She brushed the fallen leaves off the top of his head.

“Alright, I’ll leave you here.”

She let go and turned around to go home.

*****

Must be obedient.

When Xie Shang opened his eyes in the morning, those three words were looping in his mind. Was that her standard, or was it just a command at the time? If it were a standard, that would be most unfortunate, for his grandfather, Mr. Xie Jingxian, had once criticized him for being unruly and disobedient. He was like a wild plant that grew untamed; even his mother Madam Su had never demanded obedience from him.

“Is this a new fragrance?” He Dongzhou had just noticed a black perfume bottle on the table, a very faint scent lingering on the test paper, slightly bitter, with a complex base note, overall quite unique.

Xie Shang stood up and put the perfume bottle into the refrigerator in the research lab, “It’s a failed concoction.”

A failed concoction, yet not thrown away.

He Dongzhou’s phone rang just then; he stepped outside to answer, it was the hospital calling.

“Is she awake?”

The person on the other end was a caregiver.

The caregiver would call He Dongzhou five times a day to report on the physical condition of the young lady in the hospital room.

Today, the young lady had a low fever.

“Is Doctor Zhou there beside you?”

“Yes.”

“I want to speak to Doctor Zhou.”

After hanging up the phone, He Dongzhou greeted Xie Shang, “I’m going to the hospital.”

He Dongzhou had a girlfriend, but she lived in the hospital year-round.

Six months ago, He Dongzhou suddenly started wearing a ring, announcing he was no longer single. The people around him had never seen his girlfriend, and despite Gu Yihuan’s relentless prying for a long time, he got no specifics about her identity, only knowing that the girl was called Little Scar, as He Dongzhou always referred to her on the phone.

He Dongzhou often spoke with Little Scar on the phone, but their conversations were never long because Little Scar was in poor health. He Dongzhou kept her identity very secret; no one knew Little Scar’s real name, and no one had ever seen her.

Only once, Gu Yihuan overheard one sentence, that Little Scar’s hometown was in Flower City.

The VIP building was close to the emergency department, through the emergency hall and out the back door, across a corridor one could see the elevator of the VIP building.

“I’m looking for Wen Changling.”

The voice came from across at the triage desk, and He Dongzhou stopped in his tracks upon hearing the name Wen Changling.

The nurse at the triage desk said, “This is the triage desk.”

Zeng Zhili leaned an arm on the desk, rudely repeating, “I’m looking for Wen Changling.”

“Sir, we only do triage here. If you are looking for someone, you need to go to the relevant department.”

Zeng Zhili didn’t care and just loitered there, whistling and looking around, behaving like a complete ruffian.

The nurse at the triage desk saw the scar on his forehead and was rather intimidated, frightened of causing trouble, so she disclosed, “Wen Changling isn’t here, she’s in the oncology department.”