Ai Zhiyi didn't take his eyes off Chu Weixu. Until his thoughts of how he and the man argued just to force him not to comply with his hardheadedness, turned to admiration as soon as he looked at Chu Weixu's stunning appearance.
Chu Weixu had an athletic build and was 6'2 feet tall, in contrast to Ai Zhiyi who was only 5'8 feet tall. Apart from Chu Weixu being a former basketball player who was so popular at their school back then, Chu Weixu was also a person who liked to exercise, so his muscles were well-formed.
Yet, what seemed wasn't the same as the reality. Although Chu Weixu had a good, strong build, so that people had a perfect image of him, no one knew that Chu Weixu was a weak person physically, except for Ai Zhiyi, his family, and Qing Hua recently.
Chu Weixu was a person with hemophilia type B, which was a genetic disease that was passed down directly from his mother. Although hemophilia was a disease in which the sufferer was dominated by men, it was probably that a woman also had the potential to have it even on a small scale.
Type B had symptoms that weren't much different from type A. However, the most common symptoms of this type were nosebleeds and bruising in several parts of the body. Patients were also likely to be anemic, making them more easily get tired and look pale in certain conditions.
That was why Ai Zhiyi had asked Chu Weixu to take care of their tea house and also took a job that didn't allow him to work outside continuously, worried that Chu Weixu would have a bad experience, plus his current condition was much different in the past.
In the most severe cases, the patient would experience spontaneous or unexplained bleeding. Generally, it would occur in deep tissues in a person's body, such as muscles and joints. This condition caused pain, swelling in the joints or other body parts, and difficulty moving, so sufferers must regularly take medication and undergo therapy for the rest of their lives because hemophilia was an incurable disease, and could only be prevented for more serious symptoms by doing it that way.
For severe sufferers like Chu Weixu, he should routinely do prophylactic therapy to increase blood clotting factors which were done twice a week.
However, because Chu Weixu was an unruly person, he left the therapy for a month, even he had no intention of doing it for the rest of his life. It made the doctor who treated Chu Weixu thought that Chu Weixu was the most stubborn patient he had ever worked with.
No one disputed the thought, not even Ai Zhiyi, and Chu Weixu's sister.
Chu Weixu was indeed too stubborn and indifferent. If it wasn't for Ai Zhiyi scolding him all day a while ago, Chu Weixu would never have obeyed anyone.
Ai Zhiyi's anger left Chu Weixu helpless, frightened like a lion about to be ostracized from his group, so he promised to continue his therapy but still whining, asking Ai Zhiyi to allow him to take a break for a few months.
Chu Weixu was fed up with needles that left many puncture marks on his arms, so he wanted to take a break from that for a while.
Ai Zhiyi certainly didn't let Chu Weixu go that easily even if they had to have a great argument. Until Ai Zhiyi gave up and let Chu Weixu do what he wanted.
Apart from pity, Chu Weixu was too good at taking Ai Zhiyi's heart, reassuring Ai Zhiyi that everything would be fine.
Out of his stubbornness, Chu Weixu often experienced extreme pain and many terrible bruises appeared on various parts of his body. Until yesterday, he almost died from loss of blood. No wonder, because Chu Weixu was one of the severe hemophiliacs. Without therapy, he couldn't live well.
However, Chu Weixu didn't want to tell Ai Zhiyi about his recent condition. He didn't want to make Ai Zhiyi worry about him more than now or argue about something, so he chose to endure the pain that often sensed on his joints, which didn't even subside as soon as he took the medicine. Even so, Chu Weixu kept doing his usual activities and regularly exercised to relax his joints.
From the time Chu Weixu was a child until he became a teenager, his parents were so protective of him, even Chu Weixu became their top priority. His parents even pampered Chu Weixu more than his siblings, and even spent a lot of money on routine medicine and fulfilling all of Chu Weixu's wishes, just so that their beloved child could stay at home, and adopt a healthy lifestyle as suggested by the doctor.
Although in the end, Chu Weixu grew up to be a mischievous and fighting teenager, as the embodiment of a little gangster in a respectable family like them.
However, his parents never complained about anything and allowed Chu Weixu to associate with anyone else as long as he was under their supervision.
Unfortunately, as Chu Weixu loved someone too much, he chose to leave the opulence in his family and live independently with his lover in a different city.
In those complicated years, Chu Weixu suffered from joint bleeding several times due to overexerting himself to work, plus he didn't take any special medicine or therapy to increase [1]factor IX in his body, making him look so weak and thin. Even Chu Xinian, his sister, felt pity and couldn't bear to see Chu Weixu's condition at that time, which she barely even recognized.
Chu Weixu had no choice in their harsh world. He couldn't possibly let Ai Zhiyi work out there alone even though Ai Zhiyi never let him work. So, out of that, Chu Weixu even had bleeding in his internal organs due to a work accident at a factory so he had to be hospitalized for a month.
While Ai Zhiyi continued to get sweat, bleed, and cry, fighting for Chu Weixu's recovery without complaining.
Fortunately, his strong ambition to keep being with Ai Zhiyi made him get through his critical period at that time and was able to survive until now.
No one could be his motivation all this time other than Ai Zhiyi.
When Chu Weixu had to leave his parents behind, Ai Zhiyi was the only person who played two roles for him at once, as a parent and lover who had cherished him for many years. There was nothing he valued more than Ai Zhiyi's sincerity and kept standing as he loved him so much.
If people overturned this world, they would still find the same affection of Chu Weixu, and would never even lose his feelings.
Nothing could change Chu Weixu's feelings as if the feelings were a part of his own life, where if he lost the love, he was as good as dead.
The silence truly made this room feel like a nostalgic dimension, where the past was remembered like a roll of film that kept playing endlessly.
Finally, after taking the medicine, Chu Weixu turned around and was about to walk towards the sofa, where Ai Zhiyi sat watching him with a smile. However, as soon as he saw Ai Zhiyi's expression, Chu Weixu paused for a moment and smiled silently before he took a step.
Chu Weixu raised his brows, then couldn't help but ask as he stood right in front of Ai Zhiyi, "What's wrong? Am I that attractive in your eyes?"
[1] Factor IX is a blood coagulation factor drug used in blood clotting disorders, namely hemophilia B, used as a treatment and prevention of bleeding.