Can't Take My Eyes Off You

"Relax, I just want to see if your fever has subsided. I won't harm you," he explained in a faint soothing tone. He rested his palm on her forehead, with his other palm touching his own forehead.

After a few seconds, he dropped his palms and heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

Jiang Yao suspected that when he knew about her fever, he must have rushed back from the railway station like greased lightning. Perhaps he took a ride to the town and ran home all the way. She felt his palm sweating as he felt her forehead. The temperature of his palm was so warm that it could burn her forehead.

She chided herself in her mind. "Jiang Yao, were you iron-hearted? Or did you even have a heart at all? How could you have pushed such a gentleman away and avoided him at all costs? How could you have tortured him with emotional abuse for eleven years?"

"Lu Xingzhi..." Jiang Yao called out his name gently. After a few seconds of silence, she stretched out her arms and abruptly hugged the man standing before her.

Her sudden motion caught Lu Xingzhi by surprise. He was transfixed like a mannequin when she wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. He stood upright and straightened his waist like a pole as Jiang Yao embraced him. He instinctively wanted to help support her waist but his arms halted midair.

At this moment, the steadfast and strong-willed Lu Xingzhi did not know how to counterattack this fluffy and tender enemy.

"Did something happened in the house while I was away?" They had been married for a year but Lu Xingzhi had never been embraced by Jiang Yao before, nor had she been dependent on him. Lu Xingzhi could sense that she was always keeping a distance from him like she was observing their marriage from the outside of a ring.

So, when she hugged him as abruptly as she did, he immediately wondered if she was unhappy in the house. Did she stumble upon something that upset her? Did someone bully her when he was not at home and no one took her side?

"Did you and Mom have an argument?" Lu Xingzhi asked, sounding as soft as he could muster despite his anxiousness.

His concern was justified and genuine. When he had insisted on marrying Jiang Yao in the first place, his mother had been very angry and had gone against his decision, thinking Jiang Yao was too young to be a wife. After their wedding, Jiang Yao's indifferent and cold attitude toward him made his mother resent her even more.

"You may be unfamiliar with mom's temper. She has a sharp tongue but her bark is worse than her bite. You just take her nagging like a passing wind, so you won't feel so bad. I'll talk to Mom later, don't worry." Lu Xingzhi didn't have a mild temper from a general perspective, presumably because he gave his patience to the woman in his arms.

"No, it's not about that," Jiang Yao denied repeatedly.

Li Guizhi, Lu Xingzhi's mother, didn't really fancy her daughter-in-law, but she never gave her a hard time.

Jiang Yao's response smoothened Lu Xingzhi's anxious frown slightly. If she was willing to talk to him, it meant that it wasn't him who had upset her.

"Then, what's the matter?"

Jiang Yao slowly let go of Lu Xingzhi and looked at him. She found it amusing to see him standing awkwardly with an overwhelmed expression that she managed an apologetic smile. She wondered how much of an asshole she used to be that she could be flattered to the point of self-doubt simply because of a simple hug.

Jiang Yao remembered how the young comrade said that when he had nothing to do at the base, he would always visit her at the village, but she had not seen him for two years.

Lu Xingzhi, the man she was embracing at this moment, alive and well.

Lu Xingzhi, the man who loved her but never expressed his feelings verbally.

Lu Xingzhi, the man who loved her and followed her wherever she went.

Lu Xingzhi, the man who loved her deeply but did not dare to reveal himself to her. He only dared to secretly take a peek at the small village.

Lu Xingzhi, the man who was right in front of her but still kept his head downcast to hide his existence.