Volume One, Chapter Two: Encountering Him Again

Ning Yu’s face was pale and ashen, as if a hand was stirring inside her abdomen. She felt drowsy, her eyelids heavy as if weighed down by a thousand pounds.

In the darkness, Ning Yu heard the voices of nanny Li and her mother outside the door.

“Madam, the second miss seems to have mistakenly eaten an egg. She’s allergic and has broken out in a rash. She’s running a fever now...” Nanny Li’s voice was anxious.

Her mother’s tone was cold and indifferent. “I thought it was no big deal. It’s just a fried egg. Everyone else can eat it, why can’t she? Maybe she’s just sulking with me for no reason. Allergies won’t kill her. Why bother going to the hospital? Just get two allergy pills for her. And be quiet—if you wake Yun Yun from her nap, you know what will happen!”

Then the sound of her mother’s slippers retreating into the distance.

Feeling dizzy and unsteady, Ning Yu staggered into the emergency department. The nurse helped her register.

“Doctor Li, please take a look at her!” The nurse’s voice exploded in Ning Yu’s ears.

The nurse helped her sit down.

She struggled to open her eyes and saw a familiar profile in front of the computer screen, locking her gaze into cold, profound eyes.

Li Shiyan?!

The man’s icy, piercing gaze swept over her. Blood rushed to her head, and Ning Yu regained half her consciousness, gripping the edge of the table tightly.

Her eyes fell on the name tag on his chest: Emergency Department—Li Shiyan.

He... had become a doctor?

He wore a crisp, spotless white coat. The glow of the computer screen flickered across his face, accentuating his sharp, chiseled features, radiating a cold, ascetic aura.

He was far removed from the fierce young man she remembered from the underground fighting rings.

Suddenly, she realized eight whole years had passed between them. It was no longer surprising whatever path he had chosen.

As she was lost in thought observing him, his low, cold voice snapped her back.

“Fever caused by egg allergy. Go get the medicine.”

The man’s slender fingers held a pen as he casually wrote out a prescription without asking her a single question.

Li Shiyan simply glanced at the rash on her neck and her flushed face, then gave a detached diagnosis.

The nurse was a kind-hearted young woman. Seeing Ning Yu’s worsening complexion and knowing it was close to noon rest time with no patients around, she immediately offered to fetch the medicine for her.

After the nurse left, the emergency room fell silent.

With no patients coming in before the break, Ning Yu had nothing to say.

“Let me guess—you had relations with a man other than your fiancé, felt ashamed, and decided to eat eggs to punish yourself?” The man sneered.

Her pale, delicate skin flushed red, and she curled up on the chair in pain, her already slender face appearing even more angular.

She looked like a stray cat, lost and defenseless in the wind and rain.

Only Li Shiyan knew how easy it was to make this cat bare her teeth.

His words were sharp and cutting. Under normal circumstances, the cat would have snapped back already.

But Ning Yu’s abdomen twisted painfully, her head spinning. She had no energy to care about him.

Seeing her face grow paler, the man’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Anything else bothering you?”

She said nothing, curling further into herself like a turtle retreating into its shell.

He tapped his knuckles on the table, voice cold and firm: “Speak.”

Ning Yu strained to look up at him. “My lower abdomen hurts, and down there feels uncomfortable... I think I even saw a little blood when I urinated...”

Her slender figure sat there, pale-faced, eyes reddened and teary—half helpless, half coaxing.

He frowned slightly, his expression stern as he pressed on. “What kind of pain?”

“The lower abdomen feels like sharp, intermittent cramps...” Ning Yu rested her chin on the cold table edge, utterly weak. “Down there... it feels like being pricked by needles, and it itches a little.”

“Lie down on that bed.”

He rose as he spoke.

Ning Yu propped herself on the table to stand, but her limbs were weak and unstable, and she stumbled forward.

The pain from falling never came.

Instead, she found herself caught in a cold, firm embrace, surrounded by the strong scent of pine resin. The next moment, powerful arms lifted her horizontally.

This embrace was unlike the warm ones she remembered, yet it somehow gave her a strange sense of trust.

He laid her on the bed, his cold gaze fixed on her face.

“Take off your clothes.”

Ning Yu bent over, biting her lip as she slid down her pants, lying there awkwardly.

The man’s long, bony hands donned slightly yellowed rubber gloves. His eyes traveled from her face down to her legs.

Blood surged to her head again. She no longer dared meet his gaze, embarrassed, she looked away and gripped the edge of the bed.

She felt like a prisoner awaiting judgment, the tense silence stretching endlessly.

Until the cold touch through the gloves made her gasp, goosebumps rising inch by inch.

Like a red-hot iron suddenly pressed by his ice-cold hand, the burning sensation was instantly relieved.

In fact, it felt oddly comforting.

The next moment.

Her eyes widened, knuckles whitening as she gripped the bed’s edge.

The man’s voice came softly: “Everything that should have been checked yesterday was checked. Now you realize your fear is probably too late.”

Ning Yu wanted to glare at him but couldn’t bring herself to.

“That’s different.”

Last night, drugged and near madness, she could barely think straight. Now, sober, there was no way it was the same.

“It was just a basic examination,” he said, glancing at her with an indifferent expression as if she were a stranger. “Where has your mind been wandering?”

Blood rushed to Ning Yu’s face, her cheeks heating up. She decided to ignore him.

The man was serious and solemn during the examination, then promptly left when finished.

His voice was cold:

“Redness, swelling, stabbing pain, and itching combined with your recent activities suggest a possible latex allergy.”

Latex...

In other words, last night with him...

Ning Yu was stunned for a moment. It was the first time she realized she might be allergic to latex.

Lying down for a while had eased her pain somewhat.

She dressed and returned to sit on the chair.

Li Shiyan tapped his fingers on the keyboard without looking at her.

“Preliminary suspicion is latex allergy. We’ll do a skin test and serum analysis first, then you’ll take antihistamines.”

He handed her the prescription.

Ning Yu glanced at the medications listed and asked, “Can latex allergy cause abdominal pain?”

Only then did Li Shiyan lift his gaze from the screen, his cold eyes fixed on her.

“No. Because your pain isn’t abdominal.”

Before Ning Yu could respond, he continued, freezing her in place.

“You have uterine pain.”

Ning Yu flushed deeply.

Last night, though she had been drugged, it was Li Shiyan who had been relentless, harsh and prolonged, turning her over and over.

She knew it would hurt, but never imagined it would be this severe.

Yet the culprit remained as detached as a bystander, showing no sign that anything was wrong.

Li Shiyan tapped the table edge with his fingers, his expression indifferent as he said, “The medicine is prescribed. Follow the instructions.”

“Mm,” Ning Yu replied, clutching the prescription and test results, about to turn away, but he stopped her with a voice.

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