Three Days in the ICU… and He Never Let Go of My Hand.

Xie Yaoyao’s tears splashed onto the soft flesh of his cheeks.
But he still spread his little arms, standing in front of Ning Shixue.
Tang He-an was stunned.
When he finally realized, he was both amused and exasperated.
He took off his police cap and said,
“No, don’t you recognize me? I’m Uncle Tang?”
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King wasn’t going to fall for it.
He wasn’t a three-year-old kid anymore.
He was three and a half.
Uncle Tang wasn’t this dark.
This police uncle not only wanted to arrest him and the baby, he even wanted to trick him.
He was going to call Big Daddy.
Xie Zhaozhou had just gotten off the plane.
He was still at the airport when he received Xie Yaoyao’s call.
He didn’t reply to the random voice messages Xie Yaoyao usually sent him.
But he would answer calls.
Xie Yaoyao complained that a police uncle wanted to arrest him.
Xie Zhaozhou was silent for a moment, then said,
“Go ahead.”
Three and a half, already going to jail.
Xie Zhaozhou had nothing to say to him.
Xie Yaoyao’s children’s smartwatch calls were always on speakerphone, and the volume was loud.
Everyone on the set heard it clearly.
Ning Shixue suspected he even heard Xie Zhaozhou let out a very faint, cold laugh.
Ning Shixue: “…”
Fatherly love, filial piety.
Ning Shixue crouched down, held Xie Yaoyao’s soft, chubby little hand, and asked him,
“Kid, why are you afraid of the police? Shouldn’t normal people feel safe when they see a police uncle?”
It made sense for him to be afraid of the police.
After all, he had killed people in his past life.
It could only be said that he was worthy of being the original story’s little antagonist.
So self-aware.
“That’s right,”
Xie Yaoyao said, hugging his own little belly with his little hands, blinking his big, dark eyes a few times.
He Lin had already arranged for someone to film behind-the-scenes footage.
Before the movie was released, and even after, it could be posted on the official Weibo for promotion.
This scene happened to be filmed too.
He Lin simply posted it on his own Weibo.
[???]
[Sniff, I didn’t expect to see wifey and baby on Director He’s Weibo. Wiping tears.jpg]
[Baby, you’re auntie’s little silly.]
[Dying of laughter. How can President Xie be like this? Father-son relationship is hanging by a thread.]
[Aspiring (crossed out), prison-bound cub.]
Ning Shixue had a talent for stirring up controversy.
Any Weibo post related to him got popular quickly.
The parenting show director soon saw this one too.
He was beating his chest and stamping his feet.
How could he not have been on the set tonight?!
He wished he could count on his fingers the livestream time for the last few episodes.
Tang He-an spent another few minutes proving to Xie Yaoyao that he was a good person.
Xie Yaoyao’s chubby little face was full of suspicion.
Not until Tang He-an took out his phone, which had photos of them from the previous show, did Xie Yaoyao finally believe he was Uncle Tang.
Xie Yaoyao couldn’t help scratching his cheek.
What was wrong with Uncle Tang and his kid?
Why could they both change from before?
“I got tanned from filming,”
Tang He-an clarified for himself.
Xie Yaoyao rubbed his cheek and sighed.
He still couldn’t accept it.
The baby was filming too, but he hadn’t gotten tanned.
The old butler took Xie Yaoyao home to sleep first.
Ning Shixue still had one last scene to film that night before he could finish.
Xie Zhaozhou had already arrived at the airport.
He also called Xie Zhaozhou.
Ning Shixue had no self-awareness.
Since Yan Ting hadn’t told him he was hopeless, he thought he might actually have a chance of getting into Yan City University.
He had originally wanted to wait until after he took the exam next year to tell Xie Zhaozhou.
What if he didn’t get in?
But he held back and couldn’t help it.
Hiding in the crew van, he directly told Xie Zhaozhou.
Xie Zhaozhou had also gotten in the car.
Song Li’s expression was somewhat serious as he took out some medicine and handed it to him.
“President Xie.”
Xie Zhaozhou’s gaze was indifferent.
He raised his hand to stop him from speaking.
It was also late at night abroad.
The light inside the car was dim.
Xie Zhaozhou’s cold, sharp features were shrouded in shadow.
Of all the Xie family, only Xie Zhaozhou had inherited Liao Yanwan’s mental problems.
When Liao Yanwan had headaches at night, she would throw tantrums and cry out to Xie’s father.
Xie Zhaozhou also had splitting headaches.
He had found out when he was in his teens.
Over the past three years, it had gotten more and more severe.
Every time it flared up, he could only rely on medication to relieve it.
For the past few years, Xie Zhaozhou had been taking a highly addictive painkiller.
The withdrawal symptoms were worse than his headaches.
So Xie Zhaozhou simply didn’t switch medications.
He Lin had advised him many times.
But he had always abused the medication.
He only quit after confessing to Ning Shixue on the parenting show.
But it had flared up again last night.
Before getting on the plane, Xie Zhaozhou took a few regular painkillers.
They had no effect at all.
That’s why Song Li was anxiously trying to get him his medication.
Ning Shixue switched the call to video.
He was still holding the test paper he had just done.
His eyes were sparkling as he looked at Xie Zhaozhou.
Yan Ting, afraid of discouraging him, hadn’t given him a score.
Ning Shixue thought he had done very well.
“Yan City University?”
Xie Zhaozhou’s narrow, dark eyes curved slightly.
His cool voice was blurred by the static, carrying a hint of suggestiveness.
“Does Teacher Xiao Ning want to go to my school that badly?”
Actually, Xie Zhaozhou had seen Yan Ting at Yan City University.
When he was in school, Yan Ting was already a teacher there.
Ning Shixue didn’t deny it.
Xie Zhaozhou asked him to hold up the paper.
He held it up to the camera for Xie Zhaozhou to see.
Xie Zhaozhou looked at it.
Ten questions, eight wrong.
The remaining two were probably guesses too.
“It’s all your fault,”
Ning Shixue said, the tips of his ears slightly red, being unreasonable with Xie Zhaozhou.
Anyway, he was on the crew van.
He wouldn’t be overheard.
He wouldn’t be embarrassed.
“Yes, all my fault,”
Xie Zhaozhou chuckled softly.
His eye sockets were deep.
Looking at him like this, intently, there was a kind of drowning gentleness.
He asked quietly,
“How should I make it up to Teacher Xiao Ning?”
Ning Shixue couldn’t think of anything.
He was just talking nonsense.
He couldn’t blame Xie Zhaozhou for not getting into university.
“Anything you don’t understand,”
Xie Zhaozhou offered,
“ask me, okay?”
“Mm,”
Ning Shixue said, his voice soft.
He was asking a favor.
He raised his hand and waved it at Xie Zhaozhou, like a little sea otter begging for food.
He was acting cute.
After he did it, he felt embarrassed.
He covered half his face with his script.
Only his beautiful eyes and the tips of his red ears were visible.
Xie Zhaozhou couldn’t handle him acting cute.
He was almost certain this world was wrong.
Maybe it was a novel, or something else.
Ning Shixue was very concerned about his safety.
He had even warned him to be careful of car accidents.
Xie Zhaozhou felt Ning Shixue wasn’t just warning him for no reason.
Even if he didn’t know the rest of the plot, judging by how he had abused medication in recent years, Xie Zhaozhou knew he wouldn’t live long.
In the original ending, he probably died too.
Ning Shixue knew he would die, yet he still wanted to be with him.
He still liked him.
Every time Xie Zhaozhou thought about it, the wickedness in his heart would surface.
He held Ning Shixue but didn’t dare use force.
He was afraid he might lose control, crush him, and hide him deep in his bones, in his dark skeleton.
Ning Shixue didn’t talk to Xie Zhaozhou for long.
He still had to film.
They hung up after a few minutes.
After filming this night scene, Ning Shixue followed the production team on a plane to the northern city.
Wen Yu had brought along three children.
The youngest was less than three years old.
He had found him outside a rundown apartment building in winter.
This child was blind from birth.
Wen Yu had taken care of him for over half a year.
Then, unable to support him, he sent him to an orphanage.
He Lin wanted to find a truly blind child.
But after contacting several welfare homes, he couldn’t find a completely suitable one.
Tang He-an’s daughter had become partially blind from a fever.
He Lin had recently discussed with Tang He-an bringing her to film a few scenes.
Tang He-an readily agreed.
Two or three scenes had to be filmed in the snow.
Although the production could use artificial snow, He Lin still wanted to film real snow.
So he brought the production team to the northern city.
Filming started that night.
Ning Shixue was covered in warmers.
Then he put on a very thin, shabby down jacket.
The lining was even torn and barely sewn back up.
His lips were pale from the cold.
His eyelashes were covered in snow.
“Try to get it in one take,”
He Lin said, afraid he would get cold.
It wasn’t just Ning Shixue.
In this cold weather, the other actors couldn’t handle it either.
He rubbed his hands together, breathing out a puff of mist.
“All departments ready!”
In the snowy night, Ning Shixue’s cheeks were paler than the snow.
The script supervisor called action.
He shrank back and limped forward, head down.
It was especially dark at night.
The snowlight didn’t even illuminate the path under his feet.
Looking up, the stars seemed cold too.
The lights in the rundown apartment building were broken.
His lips trembled from the cold.
His fingertips were pale.
As soon as he stepped into the stairwell, he couldn’t help turning back.
He thought he heard the faint cry of a child.
He didn’t hesitate.
He walked towards the sound.
Then, in the snow, he picked up a child stiff from the cold.
The little face was purple from the cold.
The child was dirty.
He couldn’t even tell if it was a boy or a girl.
His frozen fingers tugged at his own down jacket.
He wrapped the child under his clothes, warming him with his own body, and carried him upstairs.
In this scene, Xiaoyan’er and Mengmeng were asleep.
So He Lin hadn’t brought He Miao and the others.
They would pick up a sleeping shot later.
Of course, it wasn’t really a child freezing in the snow.
The shots were edited together.
What Ning Shixue was holding now was actually a doll.
Upstairs, Tang He-an would hand his daughter to him.
He Lin had originally planned to cut here, then tell Ning Shixue the next part of the scene, explaining how Wen Yu should warm the child.
But before he could call cut, Ning Shixue had already put the child on the bed.
Then, very skillfully, he took off the child’s wet clothes, wrapped her in a blanket, and lowered his head to rub her cold little hands and feet.
He warmed his palms and covered her face.
“Be good, give a cry,”
Ning Shixue said, picking up little sister, blanket and all, gently patting her little bottom, coaxing her, wanting to see if she would react.
His movements were too skillful.
Like he had done this many times before.
It had become instinct.
Ning Shixue’s features were somewhat strikingly beautiful.
The makeup artist had softened them, making his eye sockets and lower eyelids less deep.
Seen from behind the monitor, under the warm yellow light of the rundown apartment building, Ning Shixue’s gaze was very gentle.
Like that teenager, barely in his teens, who was willing to carry everything for these children, never complaining.
He Lin was silent.
He didn’t interrupt him.
He just let him finish the scene.
When he called cut, Ning Shixue handed little sister back to Tang He-an.
Then he couldn’t help bending over and coughing violently a few times.
He was wearing too little.
The cold wind made his lungs ache.
While filming, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
Tang He-an, holding little sister, quickly handed him a cup of hot water.
“Drink some hot water.”
“Thanks,”
Ning Shixue said, taking it.
He Lin also felt something was off about Ning Shixue.
Acting was one thing.
But some things couldn’t be achieved by acting well.
Ning Shixue didn’t seem like someone who had grown up in the Ning family.
Ning Shixue avoided He Lin’s gaze.
He didn’t explain.
But he did have experience.
Every winter when it snowed, there were many abandoned babies outside the orphanage.
He helped the headmistress pick them up.
So he knew how to take care of them.
The production only stayed here for one day.
They filmed three scenes in a row.
Then they went back to Yan City.
Ning Shixue could finally rest at home.
His legs hurt so much he could barely stand.
When they filmed in the northern city before, he had actually felt uncomfortable.
But he hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
Now that autumn had arrived and it had rained a few times, the temperature had dropped sharply.
His knees felt like they were emitting cold air.
At night, they even hurt so much he couldn’t sleep.
Xie Zhaozhou bought him medicine packs.
He used them to rub his legs and soak his feet.
He also went for massages a few times.
It got a little better.
But it still hurt.
After the original host’s surgery as a child, he had been in a wheelchair for years.
The muscles in his legs were naturally not as developed as a normal person’s.
Then he had jumped into the sea for the scum gong.
The sea water at night was bone-chillingly cold.
When he was pulled out, he was frozen stiff.
The scum gong didn’t even look at him.
He had even gone home by himself.
His legs had been damaged then.
They still weren’t better.
At night, the old butler wiped tears while watching a melodramatic rich family drama.
Xie Yaoyao was also slumped on the sofa, hugging his bear, watching.
Ning Shixue was soaking his feet next to them.
His knees were covered with a blanket.
His long eyelashes drooped, casting a deep shadow.
His complexion seemed even paler.
He had lost a bit more weight.
His pale wrist bones were so thin they could barely be grasped.
They had less flesh than Xie Yaoyao’s hands.
This pain and sense of exhaustion spread through every blood vessel.
Even doing nothing made Ning Shixue tired.
In his exhaustion, his breathing weakened.
His chest rose and fell gently.
He carried a faint scent of medicine that wouldn’t dissipate.
Xie Yaoyao played with his little feet for a while.
Then he huffed and crawled over to him.
His chubby little face snuggled against him.
“Baby,”
Xie Yaoyao asked, looking up.
“Your tummy hurt?”
Whenever he ate too much and his tummy hurt, he would be listless like this.
Then the butler grandpa would rub his tummy, and it wouldn’t hurt anymore.
So he lay on Ning Shixue’s stomach and raised his soft little hand to rub it.
Ning Shixue refused.
“Nothing hurts.”
“Then why you not move?”
Xie Yaoyao’s eyes were blank.
The baby had been lying down for hours.
Ning Shixue slacked off.
“Because I’m lazy.”
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King sighed.
It was okay.
He already knew the baby was a little piggy anyway.
The evil mother-in-law was finally defeated.
The old butler shed a few bitter tears.
Then he changed the tape.
It was a recording of Xie Yaoyao’s kindergarten New Year’s party from last year.
Parents and kids were supposed to perform together.
But only Xie Yaoyao had brought the old butler.
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King had been world-weary faced back then.
His soft, chubby face was full of seriousness.
His little brow was furrowed.
While others performed as little cats and dogs, he performed as a vampire.
Draped in a little black cloak, he scared away all the other kindergarten kids.
It was the first time Ning Shixue had seen this tape.
If it were him being watched like this, he would definitely be embarrassed.
But Xie Yaoyao was full of confidence.
He spread his arms and ran back and forth on the sofa like a little fat butterfly.
Trying to recreate his performance for Ning Shixue.
“The baby wasn’t there with me,”
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King started holding a grudge.
Why wasn’t the baby there with him then?
He got tired from running.
He plopped down on the sofa.
Ning Shixue lay on his chubby little legs, buried his face in the chubby kid’s arms, and said quietly,
“I’ll go this year.”
But in the end, Ning Shixue got sick.
He started to have a fever after finishing work one night, when he got home.
Late at night, his temperature suddenly shot up to nearly forty degrees.
His body wasn’t even sweating.
His already pale cheeks took on a sickly flush.
His eyelids were also burning red.
Xie Yaoyao came to his room in the middle of the night to sleep with him.
Ning Shixue’s whole body was burning hot.
He had already fallen into a semi-conscious state.
Xie Yaoyao was scared and ran to find the old butler.
The old butler quickly called an ambulance.
Ning Shixue’s breath was hot.
His chest rose and fell with difficulty.
He still couldn’t breathe.
They put an oxygen mask on him.
Only then did he slightly recover from the convulsions.
But his eyelashes still trembled.
The high fever that wouldn’t break caused acute heart failure.
After emergency treatment, he fell back into a coma.
When Xie Zhaozhou got the old butler’s call, he rushed back to Yan City overnight.
His shoulders were covered in cold rain and mist.
By the time he arrived at the hospital, Ning Shixue still hadn’t woken up.
His face behind the oxygen mask was haggard.
Ning Shixue’s hands were bruised from the IVs.
His skin was very pale.
The bruises were especially noticeable.
Xie Zhaozhou sat down by the bed.
He wanted to hold his hand.
But both hands were covered in purple bruises.
In the end, he could only hold his cold fingertips, warming them in his palm.
Ning Shixue was moved to the ICU.
He slept for several days.
Actually, he regained consciousness in between.
But before he could open his eyes, he would drift back into a deep sleep.
The old butler brought him a change of clothes.
Xie Zhaozhou never left the hospital.
He barely even left the bedside.
Ning Shixue’s symptoms were worse at night.
He was prone to respiratory failure.
Xie Zhaozhou didn’t sleep for several nights in a row.
Not until late at night, three days later, did Ning Shixue’s eyelashes struggle to flutter, finally opening.
His whole body was heavy.
His gaze was unfocused at first.
Only gradually did it settle on Xie Zhaozhou.
Xie Zhaozhou was stunned for a moment.
He immediately pressed the bedside bell to call the nurse.
Then he leaned down and touched his cheek.
Ning Shixue’s eyelids were still a bit red.
But his eyes suddenly reddened too.
They seemed to hold traces of tears.
Xie Zhaozhou thought he was scared or in pain.
He must have been very scared.
When they were rescuing him, Ning Shixue hadn’t completely lost consciousness.
The heart had clenched in severe pain.
The severe difficulty breathing would have created a strong feeling of dying.
But Ning Shixue weakly raised his hand.
That hand was pale and cold, with bruises from the IV.
He touched Xie Zhaozhou’s sharp, deep features.
He just said, very quietly,
“You’ve lost weight.”