"There doesn't seem to be any sign of him waking up," Li Xiujie said after a checkup.
He was Ji Chengzhou's personal doctor.
Sang Qian furrowed her brows, "But I clearly saw him open his eyes just now."
"Opening his eyes doesn't necessarily mean he's awoken. Comatose patients can open their eyes without consciousness, and this isn't the first time he's done so."
Not the first time?
As Sang Qian pondered, a sigh sounded beside her. She turned to see Chen Qiurong looking at Ji Chengzhou lying in the bed with a face filled with disappointment, "I thought with the marriage joy, this time would be different."
Her eyes dimmed as she shook her head, sighed deeply, and left the room.
Li Xiujie glanced at the basin on the bedside cabinet and asked Sang Qian, "Were you just wiping his body?"
"Mhm."
Li Xiujie's eyes quickly flashed with understanding. After a moment of silence, he said, "Actually, his eye-opening just now was conscious."
Sang Qian was both surprised and puzzled, "Then why did you just..."
"As you've seen, the old lady is very much hoping that Chengzhou will come around. Although he's shown some consciousness, I cannot guarantee a full recovery, let alone assure that he will certainly wake up. Rather than give the old lady hope only to disappoint her again, I prefer to wait until there's real confidence that Chengzhou can awaken before telling her. After all, the old lady is advanced in years. I'm worried that she can't withstand such repeated turmoil."
Sang Qian nodded in agreement, "Dr. Li is truly considerate."
Li Xiujie gently pushed up his rimless glasses, "The reason he opened his eyes just now is because you were about to wipe his body. He was perhaps expressing his resistance."
Sang Qian, "..." Can a comatose person still show resistance?
As if Li Xiujie knew what she was thinking, he added, "Before the accident, Chengzhou was particularly averse to being touched by women, so I think this must have been a subconscious signal of resistance."
Sang Qian nodded as if she understood.
"So, about this body wiping thing..."
Sang Qian caught on immediately, "I'll talk to grandma and say I don't have experience in this area, lest I injure him. In the future, it would be better to let the caregiver help him wash."
"In that case, thank you, Miss Sang," Li Xiujie secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Something suddenly occurred to Sang Qian. Hesitating for a moment, she hesitantly asked, "In his condition... would there be any reaction in 'that' area?"
Li Xiujie didn't understand for a moment, "Which area?"
Sang Qian's face turned slightly red as she gestured vaguely towards a certain area below Ji Chengzhou's abdomen.
Li Xiujie's eyes behind the glasses suddenly widened, "You've seen him react?"
Sang Qian nodded and told Li Xiujie about the incident from last night when she accidentally touched 'that' area, finishing with her cheeks flushed through.
Li Xiujie looked shocked.
As a child, Ji Chengzhou had accidentally walked in on his father being intimate with a woman who was not his mother, leaving an indelible shadow in his young mind.
As a result, as an adult, he was extremely disgusted by sexual matters and particularly averse to the touch of women, suffering from severe sexual dysfunction.
Yet now, incredibly, he was reacting to this woman he had never met before, his new wife.
"Dr. Li?"
Li Xiujie snapped back to reality, suppressing his excitement and trying to keep his tone steady, "I'd like to conduct a more detailed examination on him."
"Okay."
Seeing that Sang Qian didn't move, Li Xiujie gestured towards the area below Ji Chengzhou's abdomen. Sang Qian immediately understood and, with a flushed face, said, "Then I won't disturb your examination." With that, she quickly left the room.
Li Xiujie locked the door, returned to the bedside, and said, "No one's here now."
Ji Chengzhou opened his eyes and sat up.
Li Xiujie asked eagerly, "Is what she just said true? You had a reaction to her?"
Ji Chengzhou unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his well-defined chest and a few startling red marks in the center.
"What's this? Who hurt you?" Li Xiujie exclaimed.
"Sang Qian scratched me last night."
"Ah? Why would she do such a thing to you, a comatose person?"
"Last night, as Song Shijing, I went to handle some business and was set up. I happened to encounter Sang Qian and sought her out as an antidote," Ji Chengzhou briefly summarized the events of the previous night.
However, Li Xiujie felt that this sentence was loaded with information and took a while to digest it.
Although he had many questions, he knew it wasn't the time for gossip, "I had thought that Su Yang would be the only woman in your life. I never expected that, after five years, you could still react to another woman."