Reborn As the Ex-wife of the Paranoid Male Lead

"Drip"

The infusion bottle was empty, and a doctor needed to come in to change the bottle.

Shen Cheng moved, he let go of Jian Shiwu's hand as he stood up to walk outside to let the doctor in, however, at the moment, because of his withdrawal, as if it gave the person on the hospital bed some kind of stimulation, the person in the nightmare opened his eyes with tears, he was full of emotions that took over his mind, shouting hysterically: "No! "

The room fell silent for a moment.

Outside the window, the rain fell on the glass, leaving dappled traces.

He reached out and tried to pull Shen Cheng back, but his hand stopped in mid-air, not touching because of the distance, and when he was about to give up and drop down, Shen Cheng took a half step forward and caught his cold hand.

Jian’s body was trembling.

The rain was pouring down outside, and his body was shaking uncontrollably from the intense fear, the fever was blurring his mind, he couldn't tell what day it was, he only looked at the person in front of him with blurred tears, his voice was hoarse: "Shen Cheng?"

Shen Cheng sat down beside him: "It's me."

His answer, however, made Jian’s tears fall even harder. As if someone who had been holding on for dear life had found an outlet, he jumped into Shen Cheng's arms, his aggrieved voice full of heartache: "Is it really you?"

Shen Cheng hugged that somewhat fragile body, he had not seen him for a few days butthis child has lost a lot of weight, he whispered: "Mmm."

Jian Shiwu was sobbing in his arms, "Don't you want to see me anymore?"

Shen Cheng patted him gently on the back, soothing his near-broken nerves, and whispered, "No, don't think about it."

His gentle voice seemed to break through one's psychological defenses, and Jian Shiwu cried lowly, as if he wanted to let out all his grievances.

"Liar."

"You're so cruel."

"Wuu..."

"It's all your fault..."

"You know how to bully, you're so cruel oooh..."

He cried lowly, his mouth saying harsh words, but his hands were firmly clinging to Shen Cheng, refusing to let go, like a pampered kitten asking his master for candy, but such great resentment was definitely not only because of the events of the past two days. Shen Cheng fell into a long silence, his dark eyes were deep, as if a pool of fog, unreadable and un-meltable, he gently patted the back of the person in his arms: " Don't cry."

The man who had always seemed to be able to do anything was able to handle anything with ease, but he really didn't have any experience in coaxing people, and his language was so hard that it made the person cry even harder.

"Click."

At that moment, the door of the room opened. Hearing the commotion, the people outside came over to see what was going on out of concern. Jian’s eyes were hazy with tears: "Mum?"



Zhen Meili jogged over and embraced Jian Shiwu, her voice choked with a sob: "You're awake."

Jian Shiwu hummed, “No.”

The familiar scent of his mother's breath between his nostrils brought him an inexplicable sense of stability, and brought him slowly out of the painful emotions he had felt before.

"Mum..."

Jian Shiwu had some trembling as he wrapped his arms around her, as if clutching at a lifeline: "You're not dead."

Zhen Meili broke into laughter, as she had when she scolded Jian Shiwu on the first day he was reborn: "Have you lost your senses, child?"

The scolding made Jian Shiwu wake up a little, and his thoughts slowly returned to reality. At the door of the ward stood the others, Qiao An and Lui Heng, including Annie, came in and they were all happy to see that Jian Shiwu was awake: "Awake?

"Awake?"

"I told you, how couldn't he be bothered to wake up when Auntie made the roast pork."

"Great, Jian, scaring us all to death."

The crowd was talking, bringing some warmth to this somewhat chilly room, Jian Shiwu was kind of completely back to his senses, and with a sideways glance, he saw clearly the young man standing next to him, Shen Cheng, who had been very close to him, accompanying him.

The most humiliating thing was that Shen Cheng's shirt still had a lot of tear marks on it because he was too complacent just now , crying a lot. His brain slowly remembered what he had done after he woke up, and Jian Shiwu's face turned a blue and a white, not looking very good.

Zhen Meili asked in a soft voice, "Jian, hungry? Mom cooked meat porridge."

Lui Heng also said, "There is also red meat oh."

Although the doctors had said that patients had to eat light and easily digestible food, but Jian Shiwu was in such a state that if there was anything that could arouse his appetite, then let him have a couple of more bites.

Qiao An added: "Super tasty."

There was some obvious concern in the eyes of all the people. Jian Shiwu felt his heart warm as if a heat stream had crossed it, and he spoke softly, even though his voice was hoarse: "I'm hungry."



The crowd was delighted, wanting to eat is a good thing!

Zhen Meili looked at the child's pale face and said, "Good, good, mummy will go and cook right now."

"Today I just happened to make quite a lot of food you love to eat."

"Just wash up and you can eat."

The doctor came too, and for some reason, it was as if the tears were the toxin in Jian’s body, like a blessing in disguise. This heavy rain, coupled with the long-suppressed crying from his heart, made Jian Shiwu's high fever subside.

Before leaving, the doctor only told him not to catch a cold recently and to stay in the hospital for two more days for observation before he could go back, so the children were relieved.

"That..."

Jian Shiwu had already recovered. When he saw Shen Cheng, he was nervous. He wanted to say this and that, but in the end he didn't know how to speak.

Shen Cheng bent down and took a jacket for him to drape: "Wear it, it's cold outside."

"Oh okay."

Jian Shiwu looked at his cold profile and gentle gestures towards him. He immediately remembered that during the cold War a few days ago, Shen Cheng was like a stranger to him. It was uncomfortable, but it's understandable, after all, he said the wrong thing.

Jian Shiwu's hands were clutching the sheet, his voice was soft: "I..."

Shen Cheng lifted his eyes to look at him, his dark, deep eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts. He looked at Jian Shiwu's pale face, lowered his head to stop him from saying anything further, and only said, "Auntie has prepared dinner, let's go out to eat."

"Okay."

The meal was a satisfying one.

After dinner because Jian Shiwu's condition had improved, Zhen Meili who had been up for a few days went home to rest, his father was at his desk dealing with his office work, and Jian Shiwu was sitting on the sofa while a few friends accompanied him to talk.

"People were worried when you didn't come to school for the past few days."

"Yeah, it was scary as hell."

Qiao An added heartily, "Especially Shen Cheng, he hasn't even closed his eyes for the past few days..."

When everyone looked over, Qiao An looked at someone who was looking at him with an unpleasant expression on his face and hurriedly shut up.

He looked sideways at Shen Cheng with a little surprise.

Annie took out the booklet, she said, "These are the class notes, we were afraid that you wouldn’t be able to keep up with the lessons, so we all helped organize them."

Jian Shiwu looked at the neatly written book and was touched: "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The hand writings on the small book wede different, indeed different people had helped together, but most of the handwriting was from the same person, the squared off regular script with a bit of hostile brushwork, no need to guess who had written it.

Lui Heng smiled and said, "The class representative is great, he has a full range of ideas for organizing his notes, he basically did them all these days, look, they're all dated."

Jian Shiwu looked at Shen Cheng, and said obediently, "Thank you."

Shen Cheng didn't react, as if it was just a gesture of effort.

It was getting too late for the kids to stay, so Jian Zicheng had to go downstairs to send them back, and the room suddenly fell silent, leaving only Jian Shiwu alone in the living room.

He had nothing else to do, so he began to turn over the notes in his hands. A long time ago Shen Cheng would help him organize his classroom notes. Because his English was not good, Shen Cheng would always give him a small individual tutorial every week, the key points from the classroom would not be left behind every day.

The dates on the notebooks were clearly marked, and Jian Shiwu flipped through them, including the days when they had a cold war and didn’t miss making notes. At that time he had a little awkward, but Shen Cheng still carefully helped him make these class notes, even though he was hurt by those words, he was still helping him to organize the information.

Looking at those careful and regular handwriting, Jian Shiwu suddenly felt his nose sour. Probably because he was sick and was a little more vulnerable, as he flipped through a few pages, remembering the events of the past few days, his eyes blinked and small splashes of water fell on the pages.

A low male voice suddenly came from the side: "Why are you crying again."

Jian Shiwu looked up in surprise.

In the entrance hall not far from himself, the young man in the black coat was standing there. Under the light, Shen Cheng's features were straight and his face was handsome, he looked at him, frowning slightly, and seemed to have some doubts: "Where are the notes that you can't read?"

Jian Shiwu had some embarrassment, he didn't expect Shen Cheng to be there, "You, didn't you go downstairs?"

Shen Cheng: "I forgot to take something."

"Ohh..." Jian Shiwu's pale face finally had some blood on it, and he said with a cry, "I can read it, you write exceptionally well."

He said it reluctantly, even as his voice was choked with sobs.

There were footsteps approaching, and then he smelt the fresh fragrance of Shen Cheng's body, extraordinarily nostalgic. Jian Shiwu recalled in a trance many nights in his previous life, when he had sneaked into Shen Cheng's arms while he was asleep. Sleeping in his arms was reassuring, as if it were a safe haven.

Shen Cheng sat down next to him, took his notebook and gave him a look: "Not feeling well?"

Jian Shiwu meekly shook his head.

When Shen Cheng saw that he really seemed to be fine, he said, "Go rest after reading for a while."

"Okay."

"I'm going downstairs."

"Okay..."

Jian Shiwu looked at the person like a pitiful little cat cub, as if it was almost written on his face that you don't go. Shen Cheng's eyes moved slightly and he spoke in a deep voice: "I will see you in a couple of days."



Jian Shiwu’s heart is really easy to understand, and a smile bloomed on his face like a flower, he showed the brightest smile since he woke up, his eyes twinkled as if there were stars: "Okay."

They sort of made up.

Everything was as it had always been, as if what had changed hadn’t happened

Jian Shiwu thought he would be well in a few days, but it dragged on until the end of the month.

Fortunately, there were people who helped to make up for the classes every day. So his grades were not particularly bad in the exam.

They started filming and it was quite busy, but the director also took care of the children. He gave them a few days off near New Year's. The streets were already filled with the atmosphere of New Year's, with lights and decorations all over the place.

These days Jian Shiwu would occasionally call Lui Heng to invite him out to have some fun, this time he heard him say, "Qiao An's family had some business and went back to M, saying that he would not return until after the New Year."

Jian Shiwu suddenly thought, then Shen Cheng will be alone in the big Ji family mansion.

Lui Heng said, "Didn't you say that Uncle Ji would come back this New Year, it will only be a couple of days."

Only then was Jian Shiwu relieved.

"You know what..." Lui Heng sighed at length: "The class rep is quite difficult, there’s something I didn’t tell you, it’s only when it’s almost New Year’s that I remembered. It was a few years ago, when Shen Cheng was still over at Gao Can, our whole family went out for dinner on New Year’s eve and we ran into the class representative.”

Jian said, "Where was it?"

"At a restaurant." Lui Heng voice heaved: "It was New Year's Eve, wasn't it, and we were all having a family dinner, and I saw the class rep, faintly through the door, in the back kitchen... washing dishes."

At that moment, there was silence on both ends of the phone. Jian Shiwu's heart felt like it was soaked in acid as he said, "He...wasn't home for New Year's Eve."



Lui Heng said softly, "Maybe livinf with Gao Can, was not as comfortable for him as working outside."

Later on, when he returned to the Ji family and was abroad all year round, the festive atmosphere in foreign countries was not warm, and it was not considered a proper Chinese New Year, to say the least. From beginning to end, Shen Cheng had not been able to have a real sense of New Year all these years.

Jian Shiwu sighed lightly, "This year will be good, this year Uncle Ji is here."

Lui Heng smiled and said, "That's true, I heard Qiao An say that the class representative is in a good mood this year, I think he must be happy too, we are fine, anyway, and we are also close to each other, so we shall go over to pay our respects then."

Jian agreed decisively, "Sure!"

This year was full of anticipation for everyone, the Jian family company was doing well, going public and expanding, and Ji Yuanfeng was finally able to get a step closer to his son, so he finished his company business early and set off on his trip.

......



In the evening, the house’s floor was warm with underfloor heating on, and Jian Shiwu was sitting on the sofa eating snacks and watching the newly released TV series when he saw Jian Zicheng come back from outside in a blizzard and said, "It's snowing outside."

Zhen Mei Li came out of the kitchen and said, "The weather forecast also said there was no snow in the past few days, what happened?"

"The weather is bad this year."

Jian Zicheng hung up his clothes and went to wash up briefly before coming out and saying, "Shiwu, it's going to be New Year's Eve in the next few days, so if it snows too much don't go out, it's not safe."

Jian Shiwu was putting a snack in his mouth and responded in a casual manner. Suddenly, his movements stopped, as if he thought of something, he turned back to his father with some stiffness and asked, "Dad, what day is Uncle Ji's flight?"



Jian Zicheng said while carrying the dishes, "What day? The 17th, I think."

"And what day is it today?"

"Today..."

There was a silence in the room, the calendar not far away hung with the red 17. All of them seemed to be uncharacteristically silent for a moment, and eventually, it was Zhen Meili who put down her spatula and came out to say, "I'll call the Ji family."

Jian Shiwu came a little closer but couldn't really hear the conversation that Zhen Meili hax in the room but when she came out, she looked a little solemn.



Jian Shiwu's heart sank: "Is he back?"



"The housekeeper of the Ji family said that Shen Cheng went to pick him up in the afternoon, the plane was supposed to arrive at 7pm." Zhen Mei looked at the hand on the wall, "It's 7:30, no news."

Jian Shiwu's face swished white. For a moment, his brain felt like it buzzed and stopped working, he had been gone since the afternoon, so was he still at the airport, with all the snow and wind outside...



Jian Zicheng looked out of the window, "This weather, it’s not good for a plane to fly in..."

All the people were silent.

Zhen Mei Li said, "Don't worry about it, what can happen, just wait for the news from there."

The child had lived such a difficult first half of his life that God could not afford to make any more jokes about it, and no one was laughing at a meal that should have been a happy one.

Twenty minutes past eight.

Jian Shiwu couldn't hold back: "Mum, can you call again and ask?"

What she hadn't told the child was that she had already spoken to the housekeeper about giving the family a call if Mr. Ji returned, but upti now, the phone had never rung.

Jian Zicheng looked out the window, "It's snowing hard."

The sky and the earth were blanketed, and the chill outside could be felt through the window, and the occasional pedestrian on the road walked by shivering against the wind and snow.

Such a sight reminded Jian that many years ago, when he was first reborn, there was also heavy rain pouring down that day, it should have been very cold too, thousands of students on the large campus had parents to pick them up, only Shen Cheng did not. He walked home alone in the torrential rain, the rain that day should have been very cold too, but Shen Cheng's face was so serene, perhaps because he knew there would be no people to pick him up, so he did not wait either.

Zhen Meili looked at the snow outside and likewise thought of the back she had seen that day on the road, the child with a somewhat thin figure walking in the rain.

Inside the quiet house, a crunchy voice rang out as Jian stood in front of the glass window and whispered, "Is the airport cold?"

No one answered. The hands of the clock moved slowly, eventually stopping at exactly nine o'clock.



The housekeeper said that Shen Cheng had gone at one o'clock in the afternoon, it was now nine o'clock at night, Ji Yuanfeng's plane still hadn't landed, the twilight was heavy, it was nearly eight hours that Shen Cheng had been waiting at the airport. The Jian family were all sitting on the sofa, all of then were preoccupied, with heavy faces, no one broke this quiet.

The family sat at the dinner table and sighed. Over the years, just as Zhen Meili had said, she treated Shen Cheng as if he were her own child, just as Jian Shiwu had never been able to separate himself from the boy he had been entangled with in two lives. Shen Cheng had long been inextricably linked to the Jian family, and no one could be as indifferent as they once had been.

The silence in the quiet living room was suddenly broken as the three spoke in unison, "I think..."

Once again there was silence, and the three looked at each other and smiled.

In the end, it was Jian Zicheng who said, "Recently our driver, Lao Tang, bought a special anti-slip chain for his car, two days ago, do you think it's a coincidence."

Zhen Mei Li showed a smile and concluded, "The snow hasn't frozen yet, so it's a bit better to go."

Jian Shiwu stood up, he looked at his parents and whispered, "Shall we ......?"

Zhen Meili and Jian Zicheng looked at each other and stood up together, the decision made them all relaxed and firm, "Let's go, to the airport!"