……

The only sounds were the faint ticking of the electrocardiogram monitor and the mingled breathing of the two people.

Lin Feng leaned on top of her, his arms trembling slightly. Su Mengya's fingers were still pressed against his back, her fingertips gently tracing his sweaty skin.

Opening her eyes and looking at him, Su Mengya's lips curved into a smile—the kind of smile that needs no words between two people.

Just then, a faint, almost inaudible sound came from the other side of the partition wall. Su's mother's lips moved slightly beneath her oxygen mask, uttering a muffled, weak syllable.

"Mom?" Su Mengya jumped out of bed almost reflexively, pulled the straps of her nightgown back onto her shoulders, tugged the hem of the skirt down to cover her thighs, and rushed to the bedside.

Su's mother's fingers moved slightly on the bed sheet, just a moment, her fingertips curling up and then relaxing.

The white mist inside the oxygen mask quickened for a moment. Su Mengya frantically pressed the call button on the bedside table, her fingers clicking the button several times in quick succession.

Less than a minute later, the attending physician and the on-duty nurse rushed in.

The doctor shone a flashlight into the pupils, looked at the data on the monitor screen, and then removed the stethoscope from the ear.

"The special medication has taken effect. The patient has regained consciousness, and his pupils are responding well to light and his limbs are behaving normally." He put the flashlight back in his pocket. "All indicators are stable. We'll do another brain CT scan tomorrow. If there are no new bleeding points, he can move on to the regular rehabilitation phase."

Lin Feng asked a few questions about the follow-up medication and wrote down the doctor's key points on his phone. Su Mengya sat by the bed, holding a glass of warm water, and gently applied the water to her mother's lips with a cotton swab.

Her eyes had been dry for days, but now they were red.

Su's mother's consciousness recovered slowly over the next few days, but it improved every day.

She can move her fingers now, she can drink porridge now, and she can say "You've lost weight" in one complete sentence. When Su Mengya helped her mother sit up against the headboard to drink millet porridge, Su's mother glanced at Lin Feng, said, "Xiao Feng has been exhausted these past few days," and then closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

This one sentence made Su Mengya sit by the bed for a long time, holding a bowl.

Lin Feng had a voice message on his phone from Lin Jianguo: "Your mom asked what kind of dumplings your friend likes. Invite him over for dinner sometime." He played that message for Su Mengya.

Su's mother was waking up for longer and longer periods each day. When the attending physician made rounds, he said that after another week of observation, she could be transferred to the rehabilitation department.

Zhang Xiulan would come every other day, carrying different kinds of lunch boxes. Sometimes she would sit in the ward for a while while Su's mother was asleep, chat with Su Mengya for a few minutes, and then leave again.

On the fourth night, behind the partition wall of the single ward, Lin Feng leaned against the small bed and scrolled through his phone.

Shen Qianqian posted photos of herself at her maternal grandfather's house, wearing a floral dress and sitting in a wicker chair. Zhou Mei sent a voice message asking what he was doing, her voice lazy, with the faint sound of a fan in the background.

"Sister Yang has a class scheduled for tomorrow. I need to go home, take a shower, change my clothes, and then I have to go." Lin Feng locked his phone.

Su Mengya hummed in agreement, gently tracing circles on his chest with her finger. "Go ahead. Mom's much more stable these past few days; I can keep watch over her by myself. By the way, isn't that Sister Yang a client of the yoga studio?"

Lin Feng pulled the blanket over her shoulders. "Yeah. She was the one who arranged the parking lot job for my dad last time."

Su Mengya's eyelashes brushed against his neck. "You'd better get back to work!"

Lin Feng's fingers ran through her half-dry long hair, slowly sliding down along the shallow groove of her spine.

Su Mengya buried her face in his neck, her nose pressed against the skin of his neck, her breath warm.

From the partition wall above their heads came the steady beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor and Su's mother's even breathing. Su Mengya gently kissed his neck, then turned over and snuggled into his arms, closing her eyes.

The next morning, Lin Feng went home first.

Zhang Xiulan was hanging clothes on the balcony when she saw him come in. She shook out a wrung-out shirt and hung it on the hanger.

Lin Jianguo wasn't home; the parking lot shifts were scheduled early, so he left home at seven in the morning.

Lin Feng plugged in his phone charger, pulled a clean white crew-neck T-shirt and a pair of black athletic shorts from the closet, and tossed them onto the bed. "How was Dad's work?"

"That's good. My colleagues are all very friendly, unlike the roughnecks on the construction site." Zhang Xiulan opened the balcony door and walked in carrying an empty basin. "These past few days have been so worrying for your dad and me. If something really happened to your Aunt Su, how could your sister Mengya manage on her own?"

Lin Feng changed his clothes and took a shower, using the sound of the water to wash away Zhang Xiulan's rambling words.

After washing up, I put on my backpack, straightened my collar in front of the mirror, glanced at myself in the mirror, and went out the door.

A few days have passed since I last visited, and the camphor tree leaves are denser than last time. The hydrangeas have lost many petals due to the rain a few days ago, and the ground is covered with a layer of blue-purple scattered flowers.

He swiped his card to enter the main gate, took the elevator to the third floor, and found that Xiao Wei was back at the front desk. She had light makeup on her face and her hair was newly dyed chestnut brown. Her eyes lit up when she saw him come in.

"You're here? Sister Yang is already here, changing in the dressing room. She said you had class today, so she came twenty minutes early." Xiaowei pulled out Yang Ru's appointment list and flipped back a bit. "After you took leave last time, she changed the class once. Then she called that day to ask if you were still going to teach. I told her you took leave, and she said she would reschedule when you came back."

Lin Feng shifted his gaze from her hip line. "Sister Yang, long time no see. Today we're doing a special workout targeting the waist; a slimmer waist will look even better."

"I'll listen to you." Yang Ru's lips twitched slightly.

Start your warm-up with the cat-cow pose.

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