Even after hearing that familiar voice, Jie didn’t react. His face stayed impassive while his gaze was stuck at the spot where Xu Mey stood earlier.

  Sighing, he shifted his gaze and stared at the plaster on his foot. With a deep frown, he said, "This is gonna take some time to heal."

  "Just so you know, broken bones often takes time to heal." The same voice answered even though Jie wasn’t asking.

  Jie groaned in frustration, "Thanks for the knowledge, smartypants!" Taking time to breathe, he added, "This is why I hate broken bones."

  A tall figure clad in a black leather jacket and black jean came out of the shadows and with a twinkle in that pair of green eyes the next words were said out, "And yet, you chose to love a broken girl. Ironic! Isn’t it?"

  Jie finally turned to face the tall and handsome figure. "Are you here to make fun of me, Ru’er?" Because Ru’s lopsided grin was really getting on his nerves now.

  Ru skipped her way to his bedside and sat right beside him on the bed with her arm around his neck in a loose headlock. "Definitely not! This young master came to congratulate you…… You know on becoming a father."

  Jie gave her a sideways glance and asked, "With this voice, you shouldn’t be calling yourself a young master. Don’t you think?"

  "JieJie, I can’t call myself a young miss with these clothes on as well. Can I?" She gave him a beaming smile as she pinched his cheek just to spite him. Indeed, she was looked like a handsome prince from head to toe while her voice was the only indication that she was a girl. No matter what she chose to address herself as it’d be weird.

  Jie swatted her hand away and glared at her. "JieJie? Have you lost your mind?"

  Ru gave him an innocent look. "What? You are the one who took the right of calling you Ah-Jie away from me. Now, are you saying that I shouldn’t call you JieJie? How mean!"

  Jie rolled his eyes at her. "Aren’t you three weeks or so late? You know in coming to congratulate me?"

  Ru slapped his back and he coughed before throwing daggers with his eyes which she chose to disregard. "Easy there tigress!"

  Ru shrugged her shoulders and stated, "Well, I’d like to apologize. For real! I just received your voicemail two days ago and I spent the rest of the hours on the flight. Trying to get to you."

  "Where were you?" He asked.

  "I was wandering in the Caribbean."

  "Why?"

  Ru gave him an annoyed look and retorted, "I was looking for Jack Sparrow.(*)"

  "Haha. Very funny!" Jie gave a mocking laugh at her sarcasm.

  "Glad it made you laugh." On this comment, both Ru and Jie rolled their eyes at each other.

  A moment of comfortable silence passed just like that before Jie broke the silence.

  "I wish you could come sooner."

  "Huh? Really? Why?" Ru lifted her eyes from the doctor’s notes that she was going through.

  "You could have knocked some sense into my wife’s brain." Ru saw the way his fists were clenched tightly. "I can’t believe that the person for whom I’ve been fighting constantly actually was planning on leaving me. You can’t imagine what I went through when the first words that registered in my mind were that she’s gonna leave me. Imagine waking up to that."

  Ru didn’t interrupt him, she knew him better to know that he wasn’t done just yet. Sure enough, he spoke again, "She promised me that she won’t forget me. Now you tell me, how can she even think about leaving me? Isn’t it akin to forgetting me? Forgetting us and whatever we have?"

  "Why aren’t you saying anything?" Jie turned to glare at Ru only to find her craning her neck out of the window. "What are you doing there?"

  Then he heard her voice but she wasn’t talking to him. Instead, she was talking to someone outside the window. "Adia! Just throw it up!" He shifted a bit to see her catching a bar of chocolate before shouting, "Nice throw!" Did he find it odd that she just got something to eat through the window while they were on the third floor of the hospital? Abso-freaking-lutely not!

  He just picked up a vase by his bed and threw right at her back. Ru spun her body and the vase went right out of the window. Seeing his not-so-happy look, she questioned, "Are you done whining like a little girl?"

  Jie had the urge to strangle her. As if hearing his thoughts, she moved closer to him and said, "Eat something sweet first. You obviously need some strength to strangle me."

  She said it in a playful way but that was the moment Jie realized what she was doing. She had been scared…… For him. She only found out about his accident when she came last night. He could imagine how much she must have blamed herself for not knowing.

  Even right now, she was trying to make him laugh. She knew he’ll lose his temper and it won’t end well. Not for anyone at all.

  "Why do you know me so well?" He breathed out tiredly.

  "Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps, because you and I are soul-brothers. Connected from right here." She jabbed him on his chest making him flinch a bit.

  Looking into her green eyes, Jie held her wrist and pulled her in for a hug. He felt her body stiffen up. Needless to say, she wasn’t the hugging kind of a person. But in his arms, she relaxed visibly.

  "Did I scare you?" He asked.

  Ru bit her lip before answering, "More than I care to admit." That one sentence was enough for him to relax.

  (*): "Jack Sparrow": Character name of Jhonny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean