Chapter 86: Is Your Body Very Fragile?

“So, you still harbor wicked thoughts about me?” Gu Zhenzhi deftly sidestepped Ruan Cha’s lengthy explanation, zeroing in on the key words.

As his words fell, Ruan Cha’s breath hitched.

She drew a deep breath, then simply leaned back, her cheeks puffed with indignation. “Fine, cards on the table—I do have wicked thoughts about you! So what?!”

Gu Zhenzhi was utterly charmed by her display, a low, magnetic chuckle rumbling from his chest. “Ruan Cha, do you even know what it means to have ‘wicked thoughts’?”

“Of course I do!” Her bright eyes widened, shining with lively sparks. After speaking, she caught his teasing gaze, her lips pouting slightly. “Gu Zhenzhi, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you looking down on me?”

“No.” Gu Zhenzhi stifled his laughter, bracing his hands on the edge of the bed, making to rise.

Seeing him about to get up, Ruan Cha quickly caught his arm. “Don’t—stay still!”

One hand pressed gently to his wrist, she bent down, bringing her face close to his, her forehead pressed firmly against his own.

Her soft, sweet scent enveloped him, slipping into his breath and making it catch.

“Good, your fever’s gone down a lot,” she said after gauging his temperature, then straightened and reached for a cooling patch from the side. “Put this on, and by tomorrow morning we can go home.”

Even after she stood up, that sweet fragrance lingered in Gu Zhenzhi’s lungs.

His gaze darkened slightly, his fingers curling faintly.

“Gu Zhenzhi, take your medicine first,” Ruan Cha said, handing him the pills she’d just taken out.

He naturally accepted the medicine from her palm, placed it to his lips, and swallowed them without even reaching for water.

“Aren’t you going to drink some water?” Ruan Cha quickly offered him a glass, but he waved it away.

“I don’t drink water when I take medicine.”

“Then how do you swallow it?” Ruan Cha pressed, puzzled. She rarely took medicine herself, but everyone she knew always drank water to wash it down.

“If I had to take a whole box of pills, how much water would that require?” Gu Zhenzhi’s words made her heart lurch.

She turned, surprise flickering in her eyes as she looked at him.

How much medicine must one have taken to forgo even water?

Yet his pale, refined features remained impassive.

“Gu Zhenzhi…”

“Call me ‘Brother,’” he corrected her evenly.

Hearing this, a sweet warmth bloomed in her heart; her brows lifted in a gentle smile, soft and sweet. “Zhenzhi-ge, is your health really that fragile? What other problems do you have? What can’t you do, or shouldn’t you do? Tell me, I’ll make a note so I can avoid them in the future.”

Lying on the hospital bed, Gu Zhenzhi caught the hints in her words—Is your body really that weak? What other problems are there? What can’t you do?

His gaze flickered, a strange, teasing air rising.

His eyes deepened, and his voice grew low. “I feel offended.”

“Huh?” Ruan Cha was momentarily baffled.

The next moment, Gu Zhenzhi sat up straight and suddenly leaned in, his eyes ink-dark. “Do you have some conjecture or doubt about my physical abilities?”

Ruan Cha stared, speechless.

Shouldn’t she? He was so delicate that even a brief rain had left him with a stubborn fever. How could he not be frail?

“Your body really…” she began, her voice soft, but trailed off as his cool, piercing gaze swept over her.

Her words died in her throat.

The next second, Gu Zhenzhi’s voice came, cool and deep. “I’m perfectly capable.”