You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 25 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 25 Part 1

Ruan Yu woke up with a start.

She faintly remembered that she had a dream. In said dream, she was in a sea of fire and there was a crack underneath her feet. The other side of the crack was a vast expanse of white, of ice and snow. Xu Huaisong stood on the other side and reached over with his hand to caress her face as he asked: “Could you like me again one more time?”

Something made a bang sound in her brain, she threw off her blanket in a hurry.

What kind of a weird dream was that. Was she, she, she…...being possessed!

Ruan Yu sat motionlessly on the bed for a long while. Finally she was able to connect her fragmented memories together. She realized that she had moved from the couch to the bed and it was day break now.

Then the problem was how she got here.

She looked around and didn’t see any one around. She changed her clothes, then quietly got off the bed. There was no sight of her slippers. She had no choice but to walk barefoot on the carpet to the door. She gingerly opened the door ajar to take a look.

Suddenly, she heard a “meow.”

She looked down and saw Xu Huaisong’s orange cat snuggle down at the door. The cat was eagerly looking up at her.

It looked like the cat was hungry.

Ruan Yu forgot why she opened the door in the first place. She instinctively squatted down to stroke the cat. But her hand stopped mid-air: “My fever has just gone down, I better not touch you.” Then she remembered something: “Oh, do you understand Chinese? I mean that I’m sick, emmmmm, where is your……[1]”

She hadn’t used English for many years and couldn’t remember how to say “master” in English. Finally, she doubtfully said: “......Your daddy?”

“I’m here.” Suddenly she saw a pair of shoes.

Ruan Yu paused, then slowly stood up. She saw Xu Huaisong standing in front of her carrying a cup of water in one hand and a plate in the other hand. He looked a little frustrated.

It seemed to Ruan Yu that he was trying his best to control himself from saying “are you still  burning with fever.”

Xu Huaisong noticed her bare feet, put the water and breakfast on the coffee table, then went to the side of the couch to fetch Ruan Yu’s slippers.

Ruan Yu suddenly couldn’t breathe smoothly.

Without asking, she knew how she got into the bed.

The slippers were right next to the couch, what other possibilities were there?

Xu Huaisong bent over to put the slippers next to her feet, then he walked away to pick up the ear thermometer while saying: “Come eat breakfast.”

Ruan Yu put on the slippers and said: “Mr. Xu, sorry to trouble you last night. Thank you for moving me to the bedroom.”

Xu Huaisong thought that she was a true writer, using the precise word of “moving” to eliminate any romantic connotation in the action.

Xu Huaisong certainly wouldn’t argue that he had been “carrying” her in his arms. He placed the ear thermometer next to Ruan Yu’s ear and saw “37.0” displayed on it. He turned around to write it down on a piece of notepaper.

Ruan Yu was surprised and looked closer. There were rows of numbers on the paper: 3:00 -- -- 38.2; 3:30 -- -- 37.8; 4:00 -- -- 37.5; 4:30 -- -- 37.3……

Ruan Yu stammered to say: “What…… what’s this?”

She didn’t mean to sound like she was asking something she already knew the answer to. She was simply so shocked that words just came out of her mouth.

“A research report on the effectiveness of fever-reducing medicine.” Xu Huaisong fixed his eyes on Ruan Yu’s surprised look and added a twist: “Would you believe it?”

She certainly would not.

Ruan Yu swallowed and avoided his eyes. She smoothed out her bangs and sat down on the couch. She lowered her head to pick up a custard bun from the plate and stuffed it into her mouth in order to calm herself down.

She felt the atmosphere in the room was a bit odd, like that absurd dream she just had.

In the silence of the room, the cat came over meowing all the while and tried to grab the breakfast from Ruan Yu’s hand.

Ruan Yu was about to break a piece of the bun off for the cat. But Xu Huaisong squatted down to pick the cat up: “Your breakfast isn’t here.” Then he carried the cat over to the kitchenette area.

[1]: Italicized dialogue indicates that someone is speaking English. Unfortunately for us translators, we can’t write it in Chinese here and have it make any sense.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.