After Marrying Bigshot Vegetable Boss - Chapter 54

Yu Lan, who was still unaware of this, had just finished accompanying Chu Wang for his rehabilitation.

 

Due to Chu Wang’s strong desire to recover, the doctor had come twice and been alarmed twice, telling him, “At this level, it’s already a miracle.”

 

If the doctor hadn’t added, “If you keep this up, you might end up back in bed, and that would be a true waste,” Chu Wang would not have finally stopped and decided to finish today’s practice here.

 

Yu Lan looked at Chu Wang’s clothes, completely soaked with sweat from pain and exertion, and felt somewhat uneasy.

 

But he also knew he couldn’t persuade him. Getting the doctor to say these things was already the result of Chu Wang’s efforts.

 

Even though Chu Wang still couldn’t stand, and even with both hands holding onto the windowsill, would feel pain and lose his vision after taking a few steps, he still insisted on taking a shower himself.

 

Yu Lan hesitated, knowing this was a man’s stubborn pride, and worried something might happen if he wasn’t there. After some standoff, he brought in a small stool from outside and said, “I’ll wait at the door. If you need any help, just call out, and I’ll come right away.”

 

Chu Wang didn’t refuse this time and finally patted his head. “Got it.”

 

Once Yu Lan heard the sound of water in the bathroom, he, adhering to the principle of not wasting time, called the maid downstairs to come up and change the sheets on Chu Wang’s treatment bed.

 

Although the sound of water covered most of the noise, Yu Lan’s sharp ears still caught some sounds of pain from Chu Wang as he moved.

 

Just as the maid, holding the clean sheets, pushed the door open and glanced at Yu Lan, she asked, “Young Master Yu, what’s going on?”

 

Yu Lan replied, “Mr. Chu is taking a shower inside.”

 

“Oh, I see.” After the maid quickly changed the sheets, she added, “By the way, when will this treatment bed be taken away?”

 

“The doctor said in a couple of days.”

 

“Well, you’ve worked hard.” The maid said, holding the clean sets. “Will you be staying next door? If so, I could help you change as well.”

 

Yu Lan hesitated, recalling what Xie Jun had said about hoping he could take care of Chu Wang. Considering their relationship had improved somewhat today, he quietly said, “Let’s not worry about that for now.”

 

“Ah, what a good child,” the maid said, completely unaware of the situation. “Look at you, still here waiting.”

 

“How about you go help Mr. Chu? I see he’s quite exhausted by himself. You’ve already seen him in all states, so there’s no need to be shy about helping him.”

 

The maid’s voice wasn’t loud, but Yu Lan wasn’t sure if the water sound inside had slightly diminished.

 

Fearing Chu Wang might hear, Yu Lan quickly said it wasn’t necessary and escorted the maid out.

 

Probably because Chu Wang had woken up, everyone in the Chu family was in a good mood. Moreover, Yu Lan was quite likable and everyone enjoyed chatting with him, treating him almost like family.

 

Yu Lan rubbed his ear and sat back down. Hearing no other sounds from the bathroom, he was about to chat with Zhong Jiale when his phone buzzed again.

 

It was still the unfamiliar number that had messaged him earlier.

 

It was Song Sijue trying to get in touch.

 

[Mr. Yu, this is Song Sijue. If this message hasn’t been blocked, I hope you can reply after reading it.]

 

[How have you been these past few days?]

 

[I don’t know how things are with you now. Everyone has heard about Mr. Chu’s awakening. If you encounter any trouble or need any help, feel free to contact me.]

 

Yu Lan frowned, wondering if the person had misunderstood something.

 

He didn’t particularly dislike Song Sijue; he was more reasonable and polite compared to Yu Ling. However, since he was also a main character in the book, he preferred to avoid any unnecessary connections with him.

 

Yet, this person kept trying to contact him.

 

Not replying would be impolite, so Yu Lan sighed and typed a response.

 

[Doing well, thanks for the concern. Please don’t contact me. Appreciate it.]

 

Clearly, Song Sijue didn’t fully believe him and sent another message:

 

[Don’t be so polite. If there’s anything inconvenient to say, we can discuss it in person. Or if you have any unspoken difficulties, just send a blank message or a “1” from someone else’s phone, and I will definitely come to help.]

 

Yu Lan stared at the phone screen for a long time, feeling complicated and frowning.

 

What is this? Does he think he’s being held hostage? Still not free?

 

But then Yu Lan suddenly realized, it was probably Yu Ling who had been busy scheming about him again, which led Song Sijue to send these messages.

 

He thought about it and replied.

 

[Just manage your adorable younger brother. As long as he doesn’t cause trouble, you don’t need to worry about what happens on my end.]

 

[Also, Chu Wang woke up four days later than he said. If he bothers me again, I can’t guarantee I won’t do something.]

 

However, Song Sijue seemed eager to explain, “I no longer have any relationship with him. I’m just concerned about you.”

 

The key issue was, despite imagining all sorts of scenarios, Song Sijue was now talking about secret codes. What era was this? Even if Yu Lan did encounter trouble with Chu Wang, it wasn’t something Song Sijue could resolve.

 

Yu Lan felt speechless and thought back to the trashy SMS ads he had seen when following Aunt Liu around as a child. He decided to respond humorously:

 

“Qixi Festival is a romantic holiday. Romance means being by each other’s side every day. Want to know your compatibility score? Text ‘Guo Jing + Huang Rong’ to 9999999 to receive your exclusive romantic number with Ta!”

 

It seemed that the spam message had finally worked, successfully deterring Song Sijue from sending any more messages.

 

Yu Lan was satisfied and put his phone away.

 

After all, according to the original book, when Chu Wang was angry with the Yu family, no one could help, not even the main character.

 

In the end, it was only Yu Ling’s personal charm that won Chu Wang over, and it was his genuine sincerity that made things improve slowly. Chu Wang willingly backed off, and everyone, except the cannon fodder who was locked in a mental hospital, had a happy ending. 

 

Yu Lan thought he had almost forgotten, but Song Sijue’s reminder made the descriptions from the original book come back to him clearly.

 

As for how Chu Wang tormented Yu Ling, Yu Lan remembered there was a line that said, “He almost locked the poor Yu Ling up and forced him to love him.”

 

“…………” Yu Lan shuddered deeply.

 

…No, he hadn’t thought much about it before, but now just thinking about it made his mind feel tainted.

 

So when Chu Wang came out of the shower, controlling his wheelchair, he saw Yu Lan, who was sitting on the small stool at the door, with an expression that seemed as if he had just eaten something spoiled and was hard to describe.

 

“What are you thinking about?” Chu Wang asked first.

 

Yu Lan, still immersed in the discomfort from the earlier line, unconsciously replied, “Forced love.”

 

Only after speaking did he realize he was talking to Chu Wang. He abruptly snapped out of the book’s plot and quickly rubbed his hair. “No, it’s nothing.”

 

He looked up at Chu Wang.

 

Chu Wang, due to his limited mobility, was just wearing a bathrobe and sitting on a chair. The steam and fragrance from the bathroom softened his naturally somewhat cold demeanor. With his hair wet and his skin pale from his recent illness, he looked at Yu Lan with some confusion.

 

His bathrobe was damp from the water, not exactly a mess, but it was clear he had some trouble getting dressed.

 

It seemed Chu Wang didn’t know what the term meant and frowned slightly, repeating the term with curiosity, “…Forced love?”

 

The contrast between the harsh, menacing villain in the book and his current casual, puzzled demeanor was striking. Yu Lan, looking at him, felt his face flush red for no apparent reason.

 

“It’s nothing, nothing, nothing!” He waved his hands repeatedly, feeling oddly nervous, his eyes darting around. He moved closer to Chu Wang. “I’ll help you dry your hair! Wait for me.”

 

Then he hurried to find the hairdryer.

 

When Yu Lan returned, he had thoughtfully brought a towel and said, “Your clothes were wet at the edges, so just wipe it a bit.”

 

While saying this, he turned on the hairdryer and began drying Chu Wang’s hair.

 

The sensation was strange. He had dried Chu Wang’s hair before, but this was the first time doing it while Chu Wang was conscious.

 

In the noisy hum of the hairdryer, it felt like the scene was theirs alone, with no other sounds to disturb them.

 

Every day since Chu Wang woke up had been incredibly fulfilling. If it weren’t for Song Sijue’s message today, Yu Lan wouldn’t have had time to think about anything else.

 

The things he had been concerned about before didn’t seem so important anymore, Yu Lan thought as he turned off the hairdryer.

 

Chu Wang’s days were scheduled tightly, and after finishing his grooming, he still needed to practice writing to exercise his arms and fingers.

 

Yu Lan felt that this was at least less painful than his legs, so he didn’t stop him.

 

When Yu Lan had just pushed Chu Wang over and was about to get paper and a pen, he saw Chu Wang’s phone lit up, and it seemed he was still curious about the unfamiliar term from earlier. Chu Wang was typing on the screen.

 

Yu Lan had a bad premonition, but Chu Wang had already finished searching and a new webpage had appeared.

 

So Yu Lan saw the three words again on Chu Wang’s phone: “Forced love.”

 

He rushed over and covered the screen, preventing Chu Wang from seeing more of the content.

 

“What are you searching for this for!” Yu Lan mentally cursed the original author and the comment a hundred times. “I just remembered a plot from a book and blurted it out when you suddenly came out. There’s no need to search!”

 

Chu Wang allowed him to cover the screen and explained calmly, “Because it’s indeed a term I haven’t heard before.”

 

He said, “I need to understand the topics that young people discuss. I can’t know nothing about everything.”

 

Yu Lan: “…”

 

Why such curiosity!!

 

And how old are you to be saying ‘you young people’!

 

He blushed deeply. “This, you don’t need to know.”

 

“It’s not a good term anyway…”

 

Chu Wang appeared to be in a good mood, but found Yu Lan’s reaction amusing. He lightly curled his lips.

 

“If you’re too shy to speak of it, then I won’t ask,” Chu Wang said. “I won’t look.”

 

He was now sitting in a wheelchair, having just had his hair dried. The aggressive aura he had from the marketplace seemed to be absorbed by the tranquil night outside, giving him a surprisingly innocent appearance.

 

He actually seemed a bit…

 

Yu Lan stopped his actions and looked at him, blinking.

 

Chu Wang thought he was upset about this and looked up to meet his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

 

Looking into Chu Wang’s eyes, Yu Lan felt his heart pounding heavily, like a loud thud, leaving him almost bewildered.

 

Chu Wang was different from the way he was described in texts and by everyone. Yu Lan looked at him, realizing that the labels and descriptions were just superficial and didn’t measure up to the real person.

 

But now, this Chu Wang seemed to be for him alone.

 

He would search for unknown things, explain himself when he feared doing something wrong, and test boundaries out of concern for Yu Lan’s feelings.

 

He felt like he was holding a piece of a puzzle. The previous generalizations about Chu Wang were just superficial; only this piece in his hands could unlock his true self.

 

Yu Lan’s heart raced, more intensely than in the afternoon, with a sudden surge of emotions.

 

On a whim, he took a step closer, sat on Chu Wang’s lap, and smelled his fresh, pleasant scent.

 

Chu Wang made no move, allowing Yu Lan to do as he pleased.

 

Yu Lan leaned in, took Chu Wang’s chin with his fingers, and unexpectedly planted a light kiss on his lips.

 

“I told you not to look it up,” he said, blushing and pulling away, mumbling, “This….This kind of behavior where you let me do whatever I want is what you call forced love.”