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"Why did you come out?"
Luo Xiyun turned her head and found that Chen Xu had come out. She urgently said, "Hurry back to rest."
[She really does care about me.]
Chen Xu was absolutely certain from her immediate reaction.
After suffering a few setbacks in society, he realized a principle for dealing with people: don't listen to what others say, but watch what they do.
What others say is just something to hear, not to take seriously. By observing their actions, you can understand their attitude toward you.
Moreover, with his growing experience, he vaguely understood that sometimes what someone says and what they do are completely opposite, not necessarily because they deliberately want to deceive others. Rather, they themselves might not know what they truly want.
People are just this contradictory. And women, even more so, are collections of contradictions.
He felt he grasped Luo Xiyun's psychology, his mood brightening, he said with a smile, "It's too stuffy in the room, so I came out for some air. Don't worry, I'm fine now, look, I can—ah!"
As Chen Xu spoke and jumped twice, suddenly his foot slipped, and he staggered, banging his shin against the bench beside him, sucking in cold air from the pain.
"Chen Xu—"
Luo Xiyun saw him fall, dropped the pot in her hands, and rushed over to help him up, asking anxiously, "Are you okay, did you hurt yourself?"
"I'm fine."
Chen Xu shook his head, forcing himself to remain composed, and wrapped his left arm around her waist, slowly standing up.
Luo Xiyun saw something in his expression and asked, "Did you get hurt somewhere?"
By now, Chen Xu had recovered and awkwardly said, "I banged my shin."
"Let me take a look."
She bent down, carefully pulled up his pant leg, saw it was just a small bruise, not a serious injury, and was relieved, saying, "Don't push yourself. Let me help you back to the room."
Chen Xu said nothing, placing his left hand back on her waist, and walked toward the room.
As they walked, he turned his head to look at her face. He saw nothing unusual, as if she was completely unaware of how intimate their current posture was.
When they reached the room, Luo Xiyun helped him sit at the edge of the bed, took out a medical kit, and applied some ointment to the injured area, finally saying, "You should rest well here."
After she left, Chen Xu reflected on her contradictory attitude towards him, and slowly a thought formed in his mind.
......
During dinner, Chen Xu kept staring at Luo Xiyun.
"Is there something on my face?" Luo Xiyun couldn't help but put down her chopsticks and touched her face.
Chen Xu shook his head and said in a low voice, "It's really nice to be able to sit and have dinner with you again. I originally thought I would never see you again."
Luo Xiyun's lips moved slightly before she asked, "How did you faint there?"
"The car broke down, and I could only walk. When I got to that slope, I accidentally tripped and, unfortunately, hit my head and passed out." Chen Xu said in a relaxed tone.
"Why didn't you stay in the car?"
Luo Xiyun took a deep breath, "It was snowing so heavily yesterday, walking was very dangerous. If I hadn't happened to pass by, you might have... you might have..." By the end, her tone grew somewhat agitated.
Chen Xu listened to her reproach without a hint of impatience, feeling a sense of joy. He gently explained, "The car was too far away."
Luo Xiyun heard this and frowned. Where she found Chen Xu was already the farthest area. Beyond that, it was an endless expanse of ice.
Suddenly she realized something, her eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "You went beyond the ice area?"
The so-called ice area is a large, low-lying region flooded by rainwater, forming a thick ice layer after the temperature dropped.
She would occasionally go out with Chen Xu, so she knew a bit about the surrounding environment.
The villa they lived in was surrounded by a few kilometers of what seemed like an isolated island, encircled by the ice area. No matter which direction one looked, the edge of the ice was nowhere in sight.
To her knowledge, Chen Xu always moved within the "island area" and never went to the ice area, so at first, she didn't consider it.
"Yes." Chen Xu nodded.
"You..." Luo Xiyun bit her lower lip and asked, "Was it because you ran out of gasoline?"
"We have enough stock for half a month. I intended to scout the road first. I didn't expect an accident to happen on the way back."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Chen Xu said, "Back then, we agreed: I handle the outside, you handle the inside. This is my responsibility."
"You're such a chauvinist." Luo Xiyun said, irritated.
After a while, she poked her chopsticks into the rice grains and asked, "How long did you walk in the snow?"
Chen Xu said, "Just a few hours."
A few hours?
Luo Xiyun recalled driving to find him yesterday in that blinding snowfall, with visibility less than ten meters. As the snow on the ground piled up, she had to slow down, and yet, the car wheels kept slipping. Sometimes, the wheels would get stuck in soft snow, needing her to get out and deal with it.
Driving was so difficult, let alone walking.
She couldn't imagine what kind of perseverance it would take to endure for several hours in such harsh weather.
"You..."
"Actually, I had no choice." Chen Xu said, "There was too little food on the car. I thought the snow would last for several days. Staying in the car meant certain death too."
Luo Xiyun's mouth opened slightly. She glanced at him without exposing his lie.
After rescuing Chen Xu, she opened his backpack, half of which was full of chocolate, compressed biscuits, and canned food. Enough for him to last a week.
Even at this point, this man was still so stubborn.
[So proud.] She thought to herself.
......…
After washing the dishes, Luo Xiyun pushed open the door to the room and saw Chen Xu just coming out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel. He had obviously just taken a shower.
"Your turn." He said.
She walked to the wardrobe, found a set of clothes, and looked somewhat hesitant.
Chen Xu seemed to understand her worries and said, "Don't worry, I won't peek."
She said nothing, took the clothes, walked into the bathroom, and closed the door. She thought about how Chen Xu had just showered here, and felt a bit strange, but not repulsed.
She remembered that when she and Chen Xu were still in a cold war, she would separate their clothes by several meters even when hanging laundry.
Now, even sharing a bathroom didn't bother her.
[No choice, we need to conserve fuel now.] She thought this way as she started undressing.
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